Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Lua VS Kotlin benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Mon Apr 14 2025, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[x86_64][4 cores] AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor (Model 1)

* -m in a file name stands for multi-threading or multi-processing

* -i in a file name stands for direct intrinsics usage. (Usage of simd intrinsics via libraries is not counted)

* -ffi in a file name stands for non-stdlib FFI usage

* (You may find time < time(user) + time(sys) for some non-parallelized programs, the overhead is from GC or JIT compiler, which are allowed to take advantage of multi-cores as that's more close to real-world scenarios.)

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 513ms 4.4ms 577.8MB 603ms 107ms kotlin/jvm 21
lua 1.lua 3698ms 5.1ms 172.9MB 3550ms 133ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1.kt 4515ms 38ms 146.1MB 4703ms 67ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 105.0MB 4950ms 37ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 126ms 1.8ms 161.2MB 150ms 37ms kotlin/jvm 21
lua 1.lua 305ms 9.6ms 15.8MB 283ms 10ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1.kt 318ms 32ms 17.9MB 327ms 7ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua 819ms 2.0ms 16.9MB 803ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1.5ms 0.2ms 2.1MB 0ms 0ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua 1.7ms 0.3ms 2.4MB 0ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1.kt 2.1ms 0.1ms 3.1MB 0ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 67ms 2.3ms 47.7MB 82ms 16ms kotlin/jvm 21

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 391ms 4.1ms 682.5MB 453ms 93ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 2170ms 19ms 88.8MB 2273ms 40ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 107.4MB 4947ms 37ms lua 5.4.7
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 149.3MB 4937ms 50ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1-m.kt 163ms 0.8ms 209.4MB 213ms 50ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 426ms 7.1ms 25.7MB 437ms 10ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 1.lua 1626ms 22ms 31.1MB 1600ms 13ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua 2403ms 68ms 28.8MB 2380ms 10ms lua 5.4.7

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1n.kt 352ms 1.7ms 3.5MB 340ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
kotlin 1.kt 448ms 1.3ms 49.3MB 493ms 17ms kotlin/jvm 21
lua 4.lua 711ms 0.5ms 2.4MB 700ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 4.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1n.kt 39ms 0.9ms 3.5MB 30ms 0ms kotlin/native 2.1.20
lua 4.lua 75ms 2.0ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
kotlin 1-m.kt 126ms 3.5ms 49.4MB 173ms 20ms kotlin/jvm 21
lua 4.lua 1133ms 38ms 2.3MB 1123ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 4064ms 3.3ms 2.5MB 4053ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.4MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 1022ms 2.6ms 2.4MB 1013ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.3MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
lua 1.lua 260ms 3.0ms 2.3MB 250ms 0ms luajit 2.1.0-beta3
lua 1.lua timeout 0.0ms 2.0MB 4990ms 0ms lua 5.4.7