Taking the address of a local variable leads to increased stack usage, so
the mp_decode_uint_skip() function is added to reduce the need for taking
addresses. The changes in this patch reduce stack usage of a Python call
by 8 bytes on ARM Thumb, by 16 bytes on non-windowing Xtensa archs, and by
16 bytes on x86-64. Code size is also slightly reduced on most archs by
around 32 bytes.
This patch changes mp_uint_t to size_t for the len argument of the
following public facing C functions:
mp_obj_tuple_get
mp_obj_list_get
mp_obj_get_array
These functions take a pointer to the len argument (to be filled in by the
function) and callers of these functions should update their code so the
type of len is changed to size_t. For ports that don't use nan-boxing
there should be no change in generate code because the size of the type
remains the same (word sized), and in a lot of cases there won't even be a
compiler warning if the type remains as mp_uint_t.
The reason for this change is to standardise on the use of size_t for
variables that count memory (or memory related) sizes/lengths. It helps
builds that use nan-boxing.
Instead of caching data that is constant (code_info, const_table and
n_state), store just a pointer to the underlying function object from which
this data can be derived.
This helps reduce stack usage for the case when the mp_code_state_t
structure is stored on the stack, as well as heap usage when it's stored
on the heap.
The downside is that the VM becomes a little more complex because it now
needs to derive the data from the underlying function object. But this
doesn't impact the performance by much (if at all) because most of the
decoding of data is done outside the main opcode loop. Measurements using
pystone show that little to no performance is lost.
This patch also fixes a nasty bug whereby the bytecode can be reclaimed by
the GC during execution. With this patch there is always a pointer to the
function object held by the VM during execution, since it's stored in the
mp_code_state_t structure.
Builtin functions with a fixed number of arguments (0, 1, 2 or 3) are
quite common. Before this patch the wrapper for such a function cost
3 machine words. After this patch it only takes 2, which can reduce the
code size by quite a bit (and pays off even more, the more functions are
added). It also makes function dispatch slightly more efficient in CPU
usage, and furthermore reduces stack usage for these cases. On x86 and
Thumb archs the dispatch functions are now tail-call optimised by the
compiler.
The bare-arm port has its code size increase by 76 bytes, but stmhal drops
by 904 bytes. Stack usage by these builtin functions is decreased by 48
bytes on Thumb2 archs.
Before this patch, the native types for uint and ptr/ptr8/ptr16/ptr32
all overlapped and it was possible to make a mistake in casting. Now,
these types are all separate and any coding mistakes will be raised
as runtime errors.
This patch changes the type signature of .make_new and .call object method
slots to use size_t for n_args and n_kw (was mp_uint_t. Makes code more
efficient when mp_uint_t is larger than a machine word. Doesn't affect
ports when size_t and mp_uint_t have the same size.
This allows the mp_obj_t type to be configured to something other than a
pointer-sized primitive type.
This patch also includes additional changes to allow the code to compile
when sizeof(mp_uint_t) != sizeof(void*), such as using size_t instead of
mp_uint_t, and various casts.
Main changes when MICROPY_PERSISTENT_CODE is enabled are:
- qstrs are encoded as 2-byte fixed width in the bytecode
- all pointers are removed from bytecode and put in const_table (this
includes const objects and raw code pointers)
Ultimately this option will enable persistence for not just bytecode but
also native code.
Stefan Naumann
Alexander Steffen
Damien George
Krzysztof Blazewicz