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diff --git a/382/index.md b/382/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56f9e45 --- /dev/null +++ b/382/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +Title: Performance regression tests +Author: rodarima +Created: Sun, 13 Apr 2025 19:20:10 +0000 +State: open + +As we do changes in Dillo, we risk introducing performance regressions that won't be detected unless we actually use Dillo on an old computer. + +We could emulate an specific old CPU, but this would be much slower than just using the real hardware. What we probably want to keep in mind is that we need a crappy cache and low RAM. + +I've been doing some experiments with a Raspberry Pi 2 B which has a BCM2836 chip with a ARM v7 CPU with float point unit and 1 GiB of RAM. So far it seems to be *very* good at being slow. I'm not able to find the CPU cache, nor it is available in lscpu, but it can be measured experimentally. + +Ideally, we should be able to run the CI pipeline on the RPi directly, so we can detect regressions before merging. For now lets keep it simple, and I will just run the performance tests manually. + +I could also use it to measure energy consumption in real time, so we can measure the CPU *and* the rest of the components while we benchmark the browser. The benefit of a RPi is that the power usage is minimal (1-4 W) so we won't waste resources. + +To that end, we need some reference pages that exercise several parts of the browser pipeline and a signal that can stop the browser when the page has fully loaded. We need to be able to systematically render a page in about the same time. Having a specific device that doesn't do anything else can reduce the system noise so we can keep the measurements stable after several runs. + + + +--%-- +From: sevan +Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2025 22:56:00 +0000 + +The low end slow things aren't really offered as a hosted service so if it can be a procedure which folks can run & provide feedback that might give a better indication. Since dillo runs on OS X Tiger, I can test on G3 based machines. + +Regarding the Pi, the 1st generation will provide an armv6 with 256 or 512MB RAM if I recall correctly. Let me know if you'd like a donation :) + +--%-- +From: rodarima +Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 17:45:39 +0000 + +> Since dillo runs on OS X Tiger, I can test on G3 based machines. + +It would be handy if you report any issues you find while doing regular browsing, as I don't have any MacOS computers around to test (only the CI pipeline on GitHub). I would focus on one device for performance measurements for now, so we can start with a simple goal. + +> Regarding the Pi, the 1st generation will provide an armv6 with 256 or 512MB RAM if I recall correctly. Let me know if you'd like a donation :) + +Thanks for the offer, for now I think the RPi 2 B is in the sweet spot of being slow enough to be sensitive to performance issues and not too slow so we can run the tests reasonably fast. It also helps that I already had one around which I'm not using otherwise :) + +--%-- +From: sevan +Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:05:31 +0000 + +> > Since dillo runs on OS X Tiger, I can test on G3 based machines. +> +> It would be handy if you report any issues you find while doing regular browsing, as I don't have any MacOS computers around to test (only the CI pipeline on GitHub). I would focus on one device for performance measurements for now, so we can start with a simple goal. + +Sure, no worries, I'll help on the OS X / PowerPC testing side. +If you want to run the Intel build of Tiger and have virtualbox you can follow https://github.com/ranma42/TigerOnVBox/ though you should be able to run it on Qemu as well emulating powerpc or x86. |