mxaccess/design/M6-bench-baseline.md

# M6 — `mxaccess-codec` allocation-count baseline

Source: `cargo bench -p mxaccess-codec` (commit recording this file).
Harness: `crates/mxaccess-codec/benches/alloc_count.rs` — a thin
`GlobalAlloc` wrapper that increments two atomics on every `alloc` /
`dealloc` call, then runs each scenario for 10k iterations after a
1k-iteration warm-up.

## Target (per `70-risks-and-open-questions.md` R12)

> Aim for < 5 allocations per write at steady state.

The bench gates on this: any `write_message::encode` scenario at
≥ 5 allocs/op causes the binary to exit with code 1.

## Baseline (release profile, Windows x64)

| scenario                                       |   iters | allocs/op | bytes/op | deallocs/op |
|------------------------------------------------|--------:|----------:|---------:|------------:|
| `write_message::encode` (Int32)                |  10,000 |      2.00 |       44 |        2.00 |
| `write_message::encode` (Float32)              |  10,000 |      2.00 |       44 |        2.00 |
| `write_message::encode` (Float64)              |  10,000 |      2.00 |       52 |        2.00 |
| `write_message::encode` (Boolean)              |  10,000 |      1.00 |       37 |        1.00 |
| `write_message::encode` (String, 5 chars)      |  10,000 |      4.00 |       92 |        4.00 |
| `write_message::encode_to_bytes_mut` (Int32)   |  10,000 |      2.00 |       44 |        2.00 |
| `MxReferenceHandle::from_names` (F52.2)        |  10,000 |      0.00 |        0 |        0.00 |
| `NmxSubscriptionMessage::parse_inner`          |  10,000 |      1.00 |       72 |        1.00 |
| (DataUpdate, Int32)                            |         |           |          |             |

## Read

R12's < 5 allocs/write target is **already met** across the proven matrix:

- Scalar writes (Bool, Int32, Float32, Float64) sit at 1–2 allocs/op.
  The two allocs come from (1) the encoder's `Vec<u8>` output buffer
  and (2) an internal scratch buffer in the value-encode path.
- String writes hit 4 allocs/op (output buffer, UTF-16LE conversion
  buffer, the inner-length wrapper, and one more downstream).
- `MxReferenceHandle::from_names` allocates twice (one per
  `compute_name_signature` call — UTF-16LE buffer for each name).
- `NmxSubscriptionMessage::parse_inner` allocates once for the
  `records: Vec<NmxSubscriptionRecord>` collection.

## Implications for F39

F39 (zero-copy pass) was scoped as the work to *hit* the R12 target.
With the target already met, F39's scope tightens to:

- Move the encoder's output buffer to `bytes::BytesMut` so consumers
  can split it without copying. Doesn't reduce alloc count but
  improves downstream zero-copy on the wire-write path.
- Cache the per-handle UTF-16LE name conversion (the two
  `compute_name_signature` allocs per `from_names`) inside
  `MxReferenceHandle` if the same name is registered repeatedly.
- Pool the per-frame scratch buffer at the session level so the
  per-write count drops from 2 → 1 on hot paths.

These are nice-to-have optimisations rather than R12 blockers.

## F52 deltas

F52 split the three F39 sub-tasks into their own commits. Each
optimisation lands with a before/after row in this section.

### F52.1 — `BytesMut` output buffer (encoder)

Adds `write_message::encode_to_bytes_mut` (and the timestamped
variant) returning a freshly-allocated `BytesMut`. Allocation count
is **identical** to the existing `encode` path — the benefit is
downstream: consumers can `BytesMut::split_to` / `freeze` and forward
the body bytes to a wire-level sink without an intermediate copy.

| scenario                                     | before (allocs/op) | after (allocs/op) |
|----------------------------------------------|-------------------:|------------------:|
| `write_message::encode` (Int32)              |               2.00 |              2.00 |
| `write_message::encode_to_bytes_mut` (Int32) |                  — |              2.00 |

Internally this required refactoring the body builders
(`encode_boolean` / `encode_fixed` / `encode_variable` / `encode_array`)
to fill a pre-sized `&mut [u8]` rather than each allocating their own
`Vec<u8>`. The dispatcher computes the body size up front via small
`*_body_size` helpers and resizes the destination buffer (Vec or
BytesMut) once. This is also the prerequisite refactor for F52.3.

### F52.2 — Per-handle name-signature cache

Adds a thread-local `HashMap<String, u16>` cache inside
`compute_name_signature`. Repeated calls with the same name (the hot
path inside `MxReferenceHandle::from_names` when handles are
constructed many times) skip the `to_lowercase` allocation entirely.
Capped at 1024 entries; on overflow the thread's cache is cleared.

| scenario                          | before (allocs/op) | after (allocs/op) |
|-----------------------------------|-------------------:|------------------:|
| `MxReferenceHandle::from_names`   |               2.00 |              0.00 |

Cold-path (first call with a new name) still pays the
`to_lowercase` + cache-key `String` allocations — the cache only helps
on repeats. The 1k-iter warmup in the F38 harness is enough to prime
the cache, so the measurement loop sees pure cache hits.

## Reproducing

```powershell
cd rust
cargo bench -p mxaccess-codec
```

Numbers are deterministic per release-profile build on a given host.
Numeric drift across hosts is expected (the warm-up + black_box hints
keep iteration counts stable, not the underlying allocator's
small-alloc fast-path heuristics).