AccelerateHS/accelerate

Speed up test suite

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#412 opened on Jan 15, 2018

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good first issuehelp wanted

Description

The standard accelerate test suite, used by all the backends, can be quite slow. Several of the tests are significantly slower than the others, for example segmented folds and scans, which I believe is because the reference implementations are very inefficient. Writing some more efficient reference implementations (e.g. using Data.Vector.Unboxed) should help speed things up.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
testingperformance
Issue type
performance
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Haskell knowledgeData.Vector.UnboxedAccelerate library familiarity
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the test suite to identify the slow tests, specifically segmented folds and scans. Look at the current reference implementations, likely in a test file, and rewrite them using Data.Vector.Unboxed for efficiency. Compare performance before and after. Check if there are any existing PRs or comments on this issue for guidance.