CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++visual-studio-2010performancememory-managementnumerical-analysis
Sambo
Sambo

Reputation: 11

Memory allocation for struct (low performance)

I do have a question related to slow performance of allocating memory for several structs. I have a struct which is looking like: see below

typedef struct _node
{
 // Pointer to leaves & neigbours
 struct _node *children[nrChild], *neighb[nrNeigh];
 // Pointer to parent Node
 struct _node *parentNode;  
 struct _edgeCorner *edgePointID[nrOfEdge];

 int    indexID;                // Value
 double f[latDir];              // Lattice Velos
 double rho;                    // Density
 double  Umag;                  // Mag. velocity    
 int    depth;                  // Depth of octree element

} node

At the beginning of my code I do have to create a lot of them (100.000 – 1.000.000 ) by Using :

tree = new node();

and initiating the elements after it. Unfortunately, this is pretty slow, therefore do anyone of you have an idea to improve the performance?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 463

Answers (2)

Puppy
Puppy

Reputation: 146930

Firstly, you'll want to fix it so that it's actually written in C++.

struct node
{
    // Pointer to leaves & neigbours
    std::array<std::unique_ptr<node>, nrChild> children;
    std::array<node*, nrNeigh> neighb;
    // Pointer to parent Node
    node* parentNode;  
    std::array<_edgeCorner*, nrOfEdge> edgePointID;

    int    indexID;                // Value
    std::array<double, latDir> f;  // Lattice Velos
    double rho;                    // Density
    double  Umag;                  // Mag. velocity    
    int    depth;                  // Depth of octree element
};

Secondly, in order to improve your performance, you will require a custom allocator. Boost.Pool would be a fine choice- it's a pre-existing solution that is explicitly designed for repeated allocations of the same size, in this case, sizeof(node). There are other schemes like memory arena that can be even faster, depending on your deallocation needs.

Upvotes: 3

nvoigt
nvoigt

Reputation: 77304

If you know how many nodes you will have, you could allocate them all in one go:

node* Nodes = new node[1000000];

You will need to set the values afterwards, just like you would do if you did it one by one. If it's a lot faster this way, you could try an architecture where you find out how many nodes you will need before allocating them, even if you don't have that number right now.

Upvotes: 1

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