This improves performance of running python code by 34%, based
on the "pystone" benchmark on metro m4 express at 5000 passes
(1127.65 -> 1521.6 passes/second).
In addition, by instrumenting the tick function and monitoring on an
oscilloscope, the time actually spent in run_background_tasks() on
the metro m4 decreases from average 43% to 0.5%. (however, there's
some additional overhead that is moved around and not accounted for
in that "0.5%" figure, each time supervisor_run_background_tasks_if_tick
is called but no tick has occurred)
On the CPB, it increases pystone from 633 to 769, a smaller percentage
increase of 21%. I did not measure the time actually spent in
run_background_tasks() on CPB.
Testing performed: on metro m4 and cpb, run pystone adapted from python3.4
(change time.time to time.monotonic for sub-second resolution)
Besides running a 5000 pass test, I also ran a 50-pass test while
scoping how long an output pin was set. Average: 34.59ms or 1445/s on m4,
67.61ms or 739/s on cbp, both matching the other pystone result reasonably
well.
import pystone
import board
import digitalio
import time
d = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D13)
d.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
while True:
d.value = 0
time.sleep(.01)
d.value = 1
pystone.main(50)
This code is shared by most parts, except where not all the #ifdefs
inside the tick function were present in all ports. This mostly would
have broken gamepad tick support on non-samd ports.
The "ms32" and "ms64" variants of the tick functions are introduced
because there is no 64-bit atomic read. Disabling interrupts avoids
a low probability bug where milliseconds could be off by ~49.5 days
once every ~49.5 days (2^32 ms).
Avoiding disabling interrupts when only the low 32 bits are needed is a minor
optimization.
Testing performed: on metro m4 express, USB still works and
time.monotonic_ns() still counts up
Jeff Epler
Scott Shawcroft