Benchmark_Architectures

A headless C++ benchmark that compares two memory management architectures for real-time audio processing.

What it does

Runs 100 audio blocks through two architectures and measures four memory concepts:

• Timing Unpredictability — heap allocations per audio block during steady-state processing
• Memory Churn — total new() and delete() calls during steady-state
• Memory Fragmentation — largest contiguous free block before and after the run
• Concurrency Safety — two instances running simultaneously, checksum comparison

At the end it prints a comparison table to the console and writes results.json for the BenchmarkViewer.

The two architectures

Version A — Direct Allocation Simulates a naive DSP architecture where effects allocate scratch buffers on every audio block using new and delete. Represents the current Equalizer codebase style.

Version B — System Class Architecture Implements an AudioSystem class that owns a MemoryPool and exposes an IEffectFactory as a service. All memory is allocated once at startup. Zero heap allocations during steady-state processing.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or later
• Visual Studio 2022
• CMake 3.20 or later
• C++20

Build

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --config Release

Run

.\Release\MemoryBenchmark.exe

This produces results.json in the Release\ folder. Open it with BenchmarkViewer to see the results visually.

Output

> Version A - Direct Allocation
> Version B - System Class Architecture

  Timing Unpredictability
  Memory Churn
  Memory Fragmentation
  Concurrency Safety

  Version A (Direct)    2/4 concepts passed   needs attention
  Version B (System Class)      4/4 concepts passed   real-time safe

  Results written to: results.json

Project structure

Benchmark_Architectures/
  BenchmarkTypes.hpp     shared types, counters, timer, checksum
  VersionA.hpp           direct allocation architecture
  VersionB.hpp           System Class: AudioSystem + Factory + Pool
  Benchmark.hpp          four measurement functions
  Report.hpp             console output formatter
  JsonExporter.hpp       writes results.json
  main.cpp               entry point
  CMakeLists.txt         build configuration

Related project

BenchmarkViewer — Qt6 desktop app that reads results.json and displays the results in a terminal-style dashboard.