Optimize for performance

[MadsKirkFoged]

I would like to start a discussion about how we can optimize for better performance. Feel free to chip in!

1. Analyse where the CPU is spending much of the time? --> Can we write better code that fixes the heavy CPU using functions?

2. Could we implement new strategies? --> fx. If two units are Set as SI we could ship Unitchecks and other parts of the system

[ikijano]

I haven't investigate much yet but I think most of CPU time is actually used by memory allocations and this causes pressure for garbage collector. Specially when doing calculations where simple summing of two temperatures takes over 5,5 kB memory! Even constructing basic Temperature object from SI takes over half kilobytes of of memory which seems quite lot.

(edit, was wrong benchmark implementation)

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.19043.1526 (21H1/May2021Update)
Intel Core i7-4600U CPU 2.10GHz (Haswell), 1 CPU, 4 logical and 2 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.100-rc.2.21505.57
  [Host] : .NET Core 3.1.20 (CoreCLR 4.700.21.47003, CoreFX 4.700.21.47101), X64 RyuJIT

Job=InProcess  Toolchain=InProcessEmitToolchain  

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen 0	Allocated
BaseUnit_new	5.475 ns	0.1129 ns	0.0881 ns	0.0229	48 B
Temperature_FromSI	2,310.795 ns	43.8149 ns	40.9845 ns	0.2708	584 B
Temperature_SI	1,871.114 ns	32.6237 ns	25.4705 ns	0.0763	160 B
Temperature_Plus_Temperature	4,886.971 ns	18.9505 ns	15.8245 ns	2.7390	5,768 B

[InProcess()]
[MemoryDiagnoser]
public class Benchy
{
    [Benchmark]
    public BaseUnit BaseUnit_new()
    {
        return new BaseUnit();
    }

    readonly Temperature _T1 = Temperature.FromSI(1);
    readonly Temperature _T2 = Temperature.FromSI(2);

    [Benchmark]
    public Temperature Temperature_FromSI()
    {
        return Temperature.FromSI(293.15);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public double Temperature_SI()
    {
        return _T1.SI;
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public UnknownUnit Temperature_Plus_Temperature()
    {
        return _T1 + _T2;
    }
}

[ikijano]

I already have some progress, its not much but a few percent improvement. Memory pressure has also degreased quite a bit and conversion back to SI units doesn't allocate any more memory (in case of Temperature unit).

I replaced in UnitSystem.cs Tuple reference object with Tuple value object in UnitsCount() method and in equality operator UnitsCount() method call is now evaluated only once per unit-system. UnitsCount list length is checked seperetly and method exits early if count doesn't match. I'm not sure does that affect at all.

-        public List<Tuple<string,int>> UnitsCount()
+        public List<(string Key, int Value)> UnitsCount()
         {
             //This returns <typeOfUnit,Unit Count of the specifig type>

             //var test = ListOfUnits
             //        .Where(x => x.TypeOfUnit != "CombinedUnit")
@@ -58,55 +58,79 @@ namespace EngineeringUnits

             return ListOfUnits
                     .Where(x => x.TypeOfUnit != "CombinedUnit")
                     .GroupBy(x => x.TypeOfUnit)
-                    .Select(x => new Tuple<string, int>(x.Key, x.Sum(x => x.Count)))
-                    .Where(x=> x.Item2 != 0)
+                    .Select(x => (x.Key, x.Sum(x => x.Count)))
+                    .Where(x => x.Item2 != 0)
                     .ToList();
         }

         public static bool operator ==(UnitSystem a, UnitSystem b)
         {

-            return a.UnitsCount().All(b.UnitsCount().Contains) && 
-                   a.UnitsCount().Count == b.UnitsCount().Count;         
+            var aUnitsCount = a.UnitsCount();
+            var bUnitsCount = b.UnitsCount();
+
+            if (aUnitsCount.Count != bUnitsCount.Count)
+                return false;
+
+            return aUnitsCount.All(bUnitsCount.Contains);
         }

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.19043.1526 (21H1/May2021Update)
Intel Core i7-4600U CPU 2.10GHz (Haswell), 1 CPU, 4 logical and 2 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.100-rc.2.21505.57
  [Host]     : .NET Core 3.1.20 (CoreCLR 4.700.21.47003, CoreFX 4.700.21.47101), X64 RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET Core 3.1.20 (CoreCLR 4.700.21.47003, CoreFX 4.700.21.47101), X64 RyuJIT

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen 0	Allocated
BaseUnit_new	4.561 ns	0.1848 ns	0.2590 ns	0.0229	48 B
Temperature_FromSI	2,100.589 ns	41.9153 ns	43.0440 ns	0.2022	424 B
Temperature_SI	1,586.193 ns	31.1969 ns	34.6753 ns	-	-
Temperature_Plus_Temperature	3,040.028 ns	59.3769 ns	81.2758 ns	1.4687	3,080 B
Temperature_From_Temperature_Plus_Temperature	3,289.322 ns	62.8528 ns	58.7926 ns	1.5793	3,304 B

[MadsKirkFoged]

I have optimized some code, included with your code. Can you run it again? Maybe use any other unit then temperature, because temperature is a special case and takes more to calculate.

The list I have so fare of future optimizations:

• Change from Decimal -> double as internal storage value
• Make case where if you work with only SI units, all checks/conversions can be bypassed because we know the result beforehand

Edit: Running the same tests after the upgrades I just did (On a faster PC..)

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen 0	Allocated
BaseUnit_new	3.679 ns	0.1400 ns	0.2983 ns	0.0111	48 B
Temperature_FromSI	751.549 ns	11.7679 ns	9.8267 ns	0.1163	504 B
Temperature_SI	494.250 ns	8.2973 ns	7.3553 ns	0.0181	80 B
Temperature_Plus_Temperature	224.435 ns	3.7084 ns	3.4689 ns	0.0167	72 B

I have never used this benchmark system but it looks awesome! I will try to make some more benchmarks

[ikijano]

I can give a try, but I need to use same environment than earlier.

Have you some kind tests in mind what we should try to test. Micro benchmarking is slow process so it would be nice to if we have some plan what operations we should focus. You know best anatomy of library and internals how they works :)

I had worries about how fast or memory hog Fraction type is but it seems that it's not a bottle neck. It's implemented as value type, no unnecessary memory allocations and calculations seems to be quite fast.

[ikijano]

Just fetched your latest version and speed and memory allocations looks much better than yesterday. Specially memory allocations, which doesn't depend CPU, has been reduced dramatically, nice!

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen 0	Allocated
BaseUnit_new	4.587 ns	0.0869 ns	0.0726 ns	0.0229	48 B
Temperature_FromSI	1,709.116 ns	14.0924 ns	13.1821 ns	0.2384	504 B
Temperature_SI	1,326.764 ns	12.1094 ns	10.7346 ns	0.0381	80 B
Temperature_Plus_Temperature	495.060 ns	7.2759 ns	6.8059 ns	0.0343	72 B
Temperature_From_Temperature_Plus_Temperature	516.884 ns	6.2110 ns	5.8098 ns	0.0792	168 B

I forget show last test what I used which constructs Temperaturefrom UnknownUnit after addition and causes some extra memory allocations.

    [Benchmark]
    public Temperature Temperature_From_Temperature_Plus_Temperature()
    {
        return _T1 + _T2;
    }

This is first time when I used any type of benchmarking and this was good way to learn how to use BenchmarkDotNet. It's very nice tool and I should start to use it more.

[MadsKirkFoged]

I just did speed test:

            Power P2 = Power.FromSI(10);
            Length L2 = Length.FromSI(2);
            Temperature T2 = Temperature.FromSI(4);

            UnknownUnit test = 0;
            var watch = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.StartNew();

            for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
            {
                test = P2 / (L2 * T2);
            }
            watch.Stop();
            var elapsedMs = watch.ElapsedMilliseconds;

1mio calculations in 0.240 sec (on my computer).

Of cause if you do your calculation in double you can get much faster then this