28 Sep 2015

# Python Numeric Performance

Recently, I was working on a dynamic programming algorithm that involves a lot of number crunching in nested loops. The algorithm looks like this:

def y_change_probability_python(oct_per_sec):
""" ... """
b = 1.781
mu = -0.301
return 1/(2*b)*math.exp(-abs(oct_per_sec-mu)/b)

def y_idx_range_python(y_idx, max_y_factor, height):
""" ... """
y = (y_idx/height)*(max_y-min_y)+min_y
y_lo = max(y/max_y_factor, min_y)
y_hi = min(y*max_y_factor, max_y)
y_lo_idx = int((y_lo-min_y)/(max_y-min_y)*height)
y_hi_idx = int((y_hi-min_y)/(max_y-min_y)*height)
return y_lo_idx, y_hi_idx

def find_tracks_python(cost_matrix, delta_x):
""" ... """
tracks = np.zeros(correlogram.shape, dtype=np.int64)
cum_cost = np.zeros(correlogram.shape)

max_y_factor = (2**5)**(delta_x)
height = correlogram.shape[1]

probabilities = np.empty((height, height))
for y_idx in range(height):
y = (y_idx/height)*(max_y-min_y)+min_y
for y_pre_idx in range(*y_idx_range_numba(y_idx, max_y_factor, height)):
y_pre = (y_pre_idx/height)*(max_y-min_y)+min_y
doubles_per_x = math.log2((y/y_pre)**(1/delta_x))
probabilities[y_idx, y_pre_idx] = y_change_probability_numba(doubles_per_x)

for x_idx, cost_column in enumerate(cost_matrix):
if x_idx == 0:
cum_cost[x_idx] = cost_column
continue
for y_idx, cost in enumerate(cost_column):
for y_pre_idx in range(*y_idx_range_numba(y_idx, max_y_factor, height)):
weighted_cum_cost = cum_cost[x_idx-1, y_pre_idx] + cost*probabilities[y_idx, y_pre_idx]
if weighted_cum_cost > cum_cost[x_idx, y_idx]:
cum_cost[x_idx, y_idx] = weighted_cum_cost
tracks[x_idx, y_idx] = y_pre_idx
cum_cost[x_idx, y_idx] = cum_cost[x_idx-1, tracks[x_idx, y_idx]] + cost

return tracks, cum_cost


I'm not going into the details of what this algorithm does, but note that it iterates over every column and row of the matrix cost_matrix, and then iterates over another range previous_y_range for each of the values in cost_matrix. On the way, it does a lot of basic arithmetic and some algebra.

The problem is, this is very slow. For a $$90 \times 200$$ cost_matrix, this takes about 260 ms. Lots of loops? Lots of simple mathematics? Slow? That sounds like a perfect match for Numpy!

If you can express your code in terms of linear algebra, Numpy will execute them in highly-optimized C code. The problem is, translating loops into linear algebra is not always easy. In this case, it took some effort:

def y_change_probability_numpy(doubles_per_x):
""" ... """
b = 1.781
mu = -0.301
return 1/(2*b)*np.exp(-np.abs(doubles_per_x-mu)/b)

def find_frequency_tracks_numpy(cost_matrix, delta_x):
""" ... """
tracks = np.zeros(cost_matrix.shape, dtype=np.int)
cum_cost = np.zeros(cost_matrix.shape)

max_y_factor = (2**5)**(delta_t) # allow at most 5 octaves per second (3 sigma)
height = cost_matrix.shape[1]

# pre-allocate probabilities matrix as minus infinity. This matrix
# will be sparsely filled with positive probability values, and
# empty values will have minus infinite probability.
probabilities = -np.ones((height, height))*np.inf
for y_idx in range(probabilities.shape[0]):
y = (y_idx/height)*(max_y-min_y)+min_y
y_pre_idx = np.arange(int((max(y/max_y_factor, min_y)-min_y)/(max_y-min_y)*height),
int((min(y*max_y_factor, max_y)-min_y)/(max_y-min_y)*height))
y_pre = (y_pre_idx/height)*(max_y-min_y)+min_y
doubles_per_x = np.log2((y/y_pre)**(1/delta_x))
probabilities[y_idx, y_pre_idx] = y_change_probability(doubles_per_x)

cum_cost[0] = cost_matrix[0]
for x_idx in range(1, len(cost_matrix)):
cost_column = cost_matrix[x_idx:x_idx+1] # extract cost_column as 2d-vector!
weighted_cum_cost = cum_cost[x_idx-1] + cost_column.T*probabilities
tracks[x_idx] = np.argmax(weighted_cum_cost, axis=1)
cum_cost[x_idx] = cum_cost[x_idx-1, tracks[x_idx]] + cost_column

return tracks, cum_corrs


This code does not look much like the original, but calculates exactly the same thing. This takes about 15 ms for a $$90 \times 200$$ cost_matrix, which is about 17 times faster than the original code! Yay Numpy! And furthermore, this code is arguably more readable than the original, since it is written at a higher level of abstraction.

Another avenue for performance optimization is Numba. Numba applies dark and powerful magic to compile humble Python functions into blazingly fast machine code. It is proper magic, if you ask me. Simply add an innocuous little decorator to your functions, and let Numba do it's thing. If all goes well, your code will work just as before, except with unheard-of performance:

@jit(numba.float64(numba.float64), nopython=True)
def y_change_probability_numba(doubles_per_x):
...

@jit((numba.int64, numba.float64, numba.int64), nopython=True)
def y_idx_range_numba(y_idx, max_y_factor, height):
...

@jit((numba.float64[:,:], numba.float64), nopython=True)
def find_tracks_numba(cost_matrix, delta_t):
...


However, Numba is no silver bullet, and does not support all of Python yet. In the present case, it is missing support for enumerate for Numpy matrices. Thus, I had to rewrite the first two loops like this:

# python version
for x_idx, cost_column in enumerate(cost_matrix):
...

# numba version
for x_idx in range(len(cost_matrix)):
cost_column = cost_matrix[x_idx]
...


Another area that proved problematic is N-D slice writing. Instead of using expressions like m1[x,y:y+3] = m2, you have to write for idx in range(3): m1[x,y+idx] = m2[idx]. Not a difficult transformation, but it basically forced me to unroll all the nice vectorized code of the Numpy version back to their original pure-Python form. That said, Numba is getting better and better, and many constructs that used to be uncompilable (yield) are not a problem any more.

Anyway, with that done, the above code went down from 260 ms to 2.2 ms. This is a 120-fold increase in performance, and still seven times faster than Numpy, with minimal code changes. This is proper magic!

So why wouldn't you just always use Numba? After all, when it comes down to raw performance, Numba is the clear winner. The big difference between performance optimization using Numpy and Numba is that properly vectorizing your code for Numpy often reveals simplifications and abstractions that make it easier to reason about your code. Numpy forces you to think in terms of vectors, matrices, and linear algebra, and this often makes your code more beautiful. Numba on the other hand often requires you to make your code less beautiful to conform to it's subset of compilable Python.