NetSurf 3.6 web browser released!

[wawrzon]

@gregthecanuck

it seems tlsf is clearly better at keeping the performance up while allocating and reallocating small memory bits, but it isnt perfectly compatible with legacy amiga software. which shouldnt be an issue as long as it is linked statically as part of a standard c library.

@olsen:

according to wikipedia, the behaviour we are experiencing with slab, may be a known handicap, sorry its only on a german page:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_allocator

down the page:

Ablauf einer Speicheranforderung[Bearbeiten | Quelltext bearbeiten]

Aus dem bisherigen ergibt sich der typische Ablauf einer Speicheranforderung:
1.Es wird versucht, ein Objekt aus dem per-CPU-Cache zu entnehmen.
2.Schlägt dies fehl, wird ein Objekt aus einem bereits bestehenden Slab geliefert.
3.Falls auch keine freien Objekte mehr in den Slabs vorhanden sind, muss ein neuer Slab angelegt werden, mit dem Umweg über das übergeordnete Buddy-System.

Der negative Einfluss auf die Caches und somit auf die Performance steigt dabei von Punkt zu Punkt.

the mentioned buddy allocator is afaik the default one in bernds ixemul library >6x.x, which may explain, why it performs well in comparison. maybe some more considerations should be spent on that issue?

[wawrzon]

@olsen
i dont remember very well, as its a longer while ago now, but tlsf by chris hodges and subsequently patched by cosmos are replacements for the genuine system allocator (which may have caused problems with legacy apps) rather than statically linked against an application for internal use. thats pretty different to what you are trying to achieve, so i doubt the mentioned results are relevant, but also im not sure if the other participants understand the difference.

[wawrzon]

Ah, so none of the existing TLSF implementations were linked against NetSurf at any time? I'd say it would not be too difficult to adapt them to work with AmigaOS.

Patching the exec memory management API at runtime would not be quite the same as replacing the memory management for a single application. Once your exec patches have to work for all running programs, it becomes so much harder to diagnose problems and their causes. Your chances of discovery are much better if you can limit the scope.

im afraid the amiga tlsf source isnt openly available at this time. i guess it should, by license requirements? maybe contact chris directly? im convinced, cosmos contribution was asm based..

[wawrzon]

Oh, is this working on the Vampire now? What was the problem?

is this even the same vesion of netsurf? maybe they are using artis sdl port?

@utri

im not sure if your benchmarking bears any actual meaning. there is so much factors the speed you measure may depend upon, the actual internet rates, the likely varying contents of the pages you are downloading and therefore the possibly varying acces times. above all you dont even use a cable connestion but wlan.. who even cares what stack or interface you use? id test against a locally saved page to at least eliminate few of these unknown variables. but i have said that before..