NodeJS Addons Performance Evaluation

This is a simple NodeJS addons performance evaluation.

Intro

I've used the Addons feature of Node JS to create a simple C++ function which implements a method to calculate the nth Fibonacci number. The same method also is implemented as a Javascript function. This non optimized method of calculating the nth Fibonacci is used to test a time consuming process and comparing the time required for an Addons function vs a Javascript function to do the same calculation.

Javascript implementation of Fibonacci function

// Fibonacci funcion
function fibonacci(n) {
  if (n < 2) {
    return 1;
  } else {
    return fibonacci(n - 2) + fibonacci(n - 1);
  }
}

// setup the timer
console.time('timer');
console.log('Fibonacci 44: ' + fibonacci(44));
console.timeEnd('timer');

Use Addons Fibonacci function implemented in C++

var fibonacci = require('./build/Release/fibonacciCPP');

// setup the timer
console.time('timer');
console.log('Fibonacci 44: ' + fibonacci.calculate(44));
console.timeEnd('timer');

Result

The results on my PC: For example for 44th Fibonacci number I get the following results

8869ms for the Javascript function
2880ms for the C++ function

My PC specifications:

Ubuntu Release 12.04 (precise) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.11.0-26-generic
Memory: 7.7 GiB
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz × 8

How to use:

First you need to install node-gyp

npm install -g node-gyp

Then run this command to compile the main.cpp file

node-gyp configure build

For testing the javascrip implementation of fibonacci function run fibonacci-javascript.js

node fibonacci-javascript.js

The result would be something like:

Fibonacci 44: 1134903170 timer: 8869ms

For testing the C++ implementation of fibonacci function run fibonacci-cpp.js

node fibonacci-cpp.js