summary.aprof: Projected optimization gains using Amdahl's law.
Description
summary.aprof, projections of code optimization gains.
Usage
"summary"(object, ...)
Arguments
object
An object returned by the function aprof.
...
Additional [and unused] arguments.
Details
Summarizes an "aprof" object and returns a table with
the theoretical maximal improvement in execution
time for the entire profiled program when a given line
of code is sped-up by a factor (called S in the
output). Calculations are done using R's profiler
output, and requires line profiling to be switched on.
Expected improvements are estimated for the entire
program using Amdahl's law (Amdahl 1967), and note that
Calculations are subject to the scaling of the problem
at profiling. The table output aims to answer whether it is
worthwhile to spend hours of time optimizing bits of
code (e.g. refactoring in C) and, additionally,
identifies where these efforts should be focussed.
Using aprof one can get estimates of the maximum possible
gain. Such considerations are important when one
wishes to balance development time vs execution time.
All predictions are subject to the scaling of the
problem.
References
Amdahl, Gene (1967). Validity of the Single Processor
Approach to Achieving Large-Scale Computing Capabilities. AFIPS
Conference Proceedings (30): 483-485.