NAME
Benchmark::DKbench - Perl CPU Benchmark
SYNOPSIS
# Run the suite single-threaded and then multi-threaded on multi-core systems
# Will print scores for the two runs and multi/single thread scalability
dkbench
# A dual-thread "quick" run (with times instead of scores)
dkbench -j 2 -q
# If BioPerl is installed, enable the BioPerl benchmarks by downloading Genbank data
dkbench --setup
# Force install the reference versions of all CPAN modules
setup_dkbench --forceDESCRIPTION
A Perl benchmark suite for general compute, created to evaluate the comparative performance of systems when running computationally intensive Perl (both pure Perl and C/XS) workloads. It is a good overall indicator for generic CPU performance in real-world scenarios. It runs single and multi-threaded (able to scale to hundreds of CPUs) and can be fully customized to run the benchmarks that better suit your own scenario.
INSTALLATION
See the "setup_dkbench" script below for more on the installation of a couple of optional benchmarks and standardizing your benchmarking environment, otherwise here are some general guidelines for verious systems.
Linux / WSL etc
The only non-CPAN software required to install/run the suite is a build environment for the C/XS modules (C compiler, make etc.) and Perl. On the most popular Linux package managers you can easily set up such an environment (as root or with sudo):
# Debian/Ubuntu etc
apt-get update
apt-get install build-essential perl cpanminus
# CentOS/Red Hat
yum update
yum install gcc make patch perl perl-App-cpanminusAfter that, you can use App::cpanminus to install the benchmark suite (as root/sudo is the easiest, will install for all users):
cpanm -n Benchmark::DKbenchSolaris
You will need to install the Oracle Solaris Studio development package to have a compiler environment, and to add its bin directory to your PATH, before installing the benchmark suite.
Strawberry Perl
If you are on Windows, you should be using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for running Perl or, if you can't (e.g. old Windows verions), cygwin instead. The suite should still work on Strawberry Perl, as long as you don't try to run tests when installing (some dependencies will not pass them). The simplest way is with App::cpanminus (most Strawberry Perl verions have it installed):
cpanm -n Benchmark::DKbenchotherwise with the base CPAN shell:
perl -MCPAN -e shell
> notest install Benchmark::DKbenchand then note that the scripts get the batch extension appended, so dkbench.bat runs the suite (and setup_dkbench.bat can assist with module versions, optional benchmarks etc.).
Be aware that Strawberry Perl is slower, on my test system I get almost 50% slower performance than WSL and 30% slower than cygwin.
SCRIPTS
You will most likely only ever need the main script dkbench which launches the suite, although setup_dkbench can help with setup or standardizing/normalizing your benchmarking environment.
dkbench
The main script that runs the DKbench benchmark suite. If BioPerl is installed, you may want to start with dkbench --setup. But beyond that, there are many options to control number of threads, iterations, which benchmarks to run etc:
dkbench [options]
Options:
--threads <i>, -j <i> : Number of benchmark threads (default is 1).
--multi, -m : Multi-threaded using all your CPU cores/threads.
--max_threads <i> : Override the cpu detection to specify max cpu threads.
--iter <i>, -i <i> : Number of suite iterations (with min/max/avg at the end).
--stdev : Show relative standard deviation (for iter > 1).
--include <regex> : Run only benchmarks that match regex.
--exclude <regex> : Do not run benchmarks that match regex.
--time, -t : Report time (sec) instead of score.
--quick, -q : Quick benchmark run (implies -t).
--no_mce : Do not run under MCE::Loop (implies -j 1).
--scale <i>, -s <i> : Scale the bench workload by x times (incompatible with -q).
--skip_bio : Skip BioPerl benchmarks.
--skip_prove : Skip Moose prove benchmark.
--time_piece : Run optional Time::Piece benchmark (see benchmark details).
--bio_codons : Run optional BioPerl Codons benchmark (does not scale well).
--sleep <i> : Sleep for <i> secs after each benchmark.
--setup : Download the Genbank data to enable the BioPerl tests.
--datapath <path> : Override the path where the expected benchmark data is found.
--ver <num> : Skip benchmarks added after the specified version.
--help -h : Show basic help and exit.The default run (no options) will run all the benchmarks both single-threaded and multi-threaded (using all detected CPU cores/hyperthreads) and show you scores and multi vs single threaded scalability.
The scores are calibrated such that a reference CPU (Intel Xeon Platinum 8481C - Sapphire Rapids) would achieve a score of 1000 in a single-core benchmark run using the default software configuration (Linux/Perl 5.36.0 built with multiplicity and threads, with reference CPAN module versions). Perl built without thread support and multi(plicity) will be a bit faster (usually in the order of ~3-4%), while older Perl versions will most likely be slower. Different CPAN module versions will also impact scores, using setup_dkbench is a way to ensure a reference environment for more meaningful hardware comparisons.
The multi-thread scalability calculated by the suite should approach 100% if each thread runs on a full core (i.e. no SMT), and the core can maintain the clock speed it had on the single-thread runs. Note that the overall scalability is an average of the benchmarks that drops non-scaling outliers (over 2*stdev less than the mean).
If you want to reduce the effects of thermal throttling, which will lower the speed of (mainly multi-threaded) benchmarks as the CPU temperature increases, the sleep option can help by adding cooldown time between each benchmark.
The suite will report a Pass/Fail per benchmark. A failure may be caused if you have different CPAN module version installed - this is normal, and you will be warned.
MCE::Loop is used to run on the desired number of parallel threads, with minimal overhead., There is an option to disable it, which forces a single-thread run.
setup_dkbench
Simple installer to check/get the reference versions of CPAN modules and download the Genbank data file required for the BioPerl benchmarks of the DKbench suite.
It assumes that you have some software already installed (see "INSTALLATION" above), try setup_dkbench --help will give you more details.
setup_dkbench [--force --sudo --test --data=s --help]
Options:
--sudo : Will use sudo for cpanm calls.
--force : Will install reference CPAN module versions and re-download the genbank data.
--test : Will run the test suites for the CPAN module (default behaviour is to skip).
--data=s : Data dir path to copy files from. Should not need if you installed DKbench.
--help : Print this help text and exit.Running it without any options will fetch the data for the BioPerl tests (similar to dkbench --setup) and use cpanm to install any missing libraries.
Using it with --force will install the reference CPAN module versions, including BioPerl which is not a requirement for DKbench, but enables the BioPerl benchmarks.
The reference Perl and CPAN versions are suggested if you want a fair comparison between systems and also for the benchmark Pass/Fail results to be reliable.
BENCHMARKS
The suite consists of 21 benchmarks, 19 will run by default. However, the BioPerl Monomers requires the optional BioPerl to be installed and Genbank data to be downloaded (dkbench --setup can do the latter), so you will only see 18 benchmarks running just after a standard install. Because the overall score is an average, it is generally unaffected by adding or skipping a benchmark or two.
The optional benchmarks are enabled with the --time_piece and --bio_codons options.
Astro: Calculates precession between random epochs and finds the constellation for random equatorial coordinates using Astro::Coord::Precession and Astro::Coord::Constellations respectively.BioPerl Codons: Counts codons on a sample bacterial sequence. Requires BioPerl to be installed. This test does not scale well on multiple threads, so is disabled by default (use--bio_codons) option. Requires data fetched using the--setupoption.BioPerl Monomers: Counts monomers on 500 sample bacterial sequences using BioPerl (which needs to be installed). Requires data fetched using the--setupoption.CSS::Inliner: Inlines CSS on 2 sample wiki pages using CSS::Inliner.Crypt::JWT: Creates large JSON Web Tokens with RSA and EC crypto keys using Crypt::JWT.DateTime: Creates and manipulates DateTime objects.DBI/SQL: Creates a mock DBI connection (using DBD::Mock) and passes it insert/select statements using SQL::Inserter and SQL::Abstract::Classic. The latter is quite slow at creating the statements, but it is widely used.Digest: Creates MD5, SH1 and SHA-512 digests of a large string.Encode: Encodes/decodes large strings from/to UTF-8/16, cp-1252.HTML::FormatText: Converts HTML to text for 2 sample wiki pages using HTML::FormatText.Imager: Loads a sample image and performs edits/manipulations with Imager, including filters like gaussian, unsharp mask, mandelbrot.JSON::XS: Encodes/decodes random data structures to/from JSON using JSON::XS.Math::DCT: Does 8x8, 18x18 and 32x32 DCT transforms with Math::DCT.Math::MatrixReal: Performs various manipulations on Math::MatrixReal matrices.Moose: Creates Moose objects.Moose prove: Runs 110 tests from the Moose 2.2201 test suite. The least CPU-intensive test (which is why there is the option--no_proveto disable it), most of the time will be spent loading the interpreter and the Moose module for each test, which is behaviour representative of how a Perl test suite runs by default.Primes: Calculates all primes up to 7.5 million. Small number with repeat was chosen to keep low memory (this is a pure Perl function no Math libraries).Regex/Subst: Concatenates 3 wiki pages into a byte string then matches 3 typical regexes (for names, emails, URIs), replaces html tags with their contents (starting with the innermost) and does calls subst a few times.Regex/Subst utf8: Exactly the same asRegex/Subst, but reads into a utf8 string. Perl version can make a big difference, as Unicode behaviour has changed (old Perl versions are faster but less strict in general).Text::Levenshtein: The edit distance for strings of various lengths (up to 2500) are calculated using Text::Levenshtein::XS and Text::Levenshtein::Damerau::XS.Time::Piece: Creates and manipulates/converts Time::Piece objects. It is disabled by default because it uses the OS time libraries, so it might skew results if you are trying to compare CPUs on different OS platforms. It can be enabled with the--time_pieceoption. For MacOS specifically, it can only be enabled if--no_mceis specified, as it runs extremely slow when forked.
EXPORTED FUNCTIONS
You will normally not use the Benchmark::DKbench module itself, but here are the exported functions that the dkbench script uses for reference:
system_identity
my $cores = system_identity();Prints out software/hardware configuration and returns then number of cores detected.
suite_run
my %stats = suite_run(\%options);Runs the benchmark suite given the %options and prints results. Returns a hash with run stats.
The options accepted are the same as the dkbench script (in their long form), except help, setup and max_threads which are command-line only.
calc_scalability
calc_scalability(\%options, \%stat_single, \%stat_multi);Given the %stat_single results of a single-threaded suite_run and %stat_multi results of a multi-threaded run, will calculate and print the multi-thread scalability.
NOTES
The benchmark suite was created to compare the performance of various cloud offerings. You can see the original perl blog post as well as the 2023 follow-up.
The benchmarks for the first version were more tuned to what I would expect to run on the servers I was testing, in order to choose the optimal types for the company I was working for. The second version has expanded a bit over that, and is friendlier to use.
Althought this benchmark is in general a good indicator of general CPU performance and can be customized to your needs, no benchmark is as good as running your own actual workload.
SCORES
Some sample DKbench score results from various systems for comparison (all on reference setup with Perl 5.36.0 thread-multi):
CPU Cores/HT Single Multi Scalability
Intel i7-4750HQ @ 2.0 (MacOS) 4/8 612 2332 46.9%
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U @ 2.1 (WSL) 6/12 905 4444 40.6%
Apple M1 Pro @ 3.2 (MacOS) 10/10 1283 10026 78.8%
Apple M2 Pro @ 3.5 (MacOS) 12/12 1415 12394 73.1%
Ampere Altra @ 3.0 (Linux) 48/48 708 32718 97.7%
Intel Xeon Platinum 8481C @ 2.7 (Linux) 88/176 1000 86055 48.9%
AMD EPYC Milan 7B13 @ 2.45 (Linux) 112/224 956 104536 49.3%
AMD EPYC Genoa 9B14 @ 2.7 (Linux) 180/360 1197 221622 51.4%AUTHOR
Dimitrios Kechagias, <dkechag at cpan.org>
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests either on GitHub (preferred), or on RT (via the email bug-Benchmark-DKbench at rt.cpan.org or web interface).
I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
GIT
https://github.com/dkechag/Benchmark-DKbench
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
This software is copyright (c) 2021-2023 by Dimitrios Kechagias.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.