Funcall Speed-Up

[boyer@rascal.ics.UTEXAS.EDU (Bob Boyer)]

I believe I was using the production mode of the Sun/Lucid compiler.

Below is a complete transcript of another run of the test in
Sun/Lucid.  The settings and conditions are exactly the same as I
reported in my previous note.  The results are quite similar.  You'll
note that the compilation-speed setting was and is 0.  Should I try
any other settings?  On p. 4-6 of my Sun/Lucid manual, it states "The
following proclamation selects the production mode of the Compiler:
(proclaim '(optimize (compilation-speed 0) (safety 1) (speed 3)))".  I
assume that setting safety down to 0 from 1 (as I have done) does not
produce code that runs slower.  Do you agree that I was running in
production mode, as you suggest I should for benchmarking?

Why don't you run this test in AKCL 1.236 on your Sun-3/480?  You can
ftp ACKL 1.236 from rascal.ics.utexas.edu, or I could mail you a tape.

Here is the run.

% lucid
;;; Enabling ephemeral garbage collection.
;;; 
;;; Sun Common Lisp, Development Environment 3.0.2, 2 August 1988
;;; Sun-3 Version for SunOS 3.X 
;;;
;;; Copyright (c) 1988 by Sun Microsystems, Inc., All Rights Reserved
;;; Copyright (c) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 by Lucid, Inc., All Rights Reserved
;;;
;;; This software product contains confidential and trade secret
;;; information belonging to Sun Microsystems.  It may not be copied
;;; for any reason other than for archival and backup purposes.
;;;
;;; This image contains the Compiler (production and development modes),
;;; the Window Tool Kit, Flavors, and the Editor.

;;; Loading source file "lisp-init.lisp"
> (compile-file "ftest.lisp")
;;; You are using the compiler in production mode (compilation-speed = 0)
;;; Generation of runtime error checking code is disabled (safety = 0)
;;; Tail recursion elimination is enabled (speed = 3)
;;; Reading source file "ftest.lisp"
;;; While compiling top level forms
;;; Warning: File does not begin with IN-PACKAGE.  Compiling in package "USER"
;;; Expanding Reserved Memory
;;; GC: 4722 words [18888 bytes] of dynamic storage in use.
;;; 1469836 words [5879344 bytes] of free storage available before a GC.
;;; 2944394 words [11777576 bytes] of free storage available if GC is disabled.
;;; Writing binary file "ftest.lbin"
#P"/disk1/home/boyer/ftest.lbin"
> (load "ftest")
;;; Loading binary file "ftest.lbin"
#P"/disk1/home/boyer/ftest.lbin"
> (report 1000000)
do-cost
Elapsed Real Time = 0.72 seconds
Total Run Time    = 0.70 seconds
User Run Time     = 0.70 seconds
System Run Time   = 0.00 seconds
Dynamic Bytes Consed = 0
regular-call-cost
Elapsed Real Time = 5.56 seconds
Total Run Time    = 5.52 seconds
User Run Time     = 5.52 seconds
System Run Time   = 0.00 seconds
Dynamic Bytes Consed = 0
funcall-cost
Elapsed Real Time = 6.78 seconds
Total Run Time    = 6.46 seconds
User Run Time     = 6.36 seconds
System Run Time   = 0.10 seconds
Dynamic Bytes Consed = 0
NIL
>