Chunk 26.1

In this chunk, the assistant executed the full production benchmark for the Phase 9 PCIe Transfer Optimization under the intended dual-worker configuration. This required first resolving daemon lifecycle issues by forcefully terminating the old process, clearing stale logs, and ensuring the port was free before restarting a clean daemon. The assistant then launched the batch benchmark with 5 proofs, concurrency=3, and `gpu_workers_per_device=2`. The benchmark completed successfully, yielding a system throughput of 41.0 s/proof. Detailed GPU timing logs confirmed that the kernel-level optimizations are performing well, with `gpu_total_ms` around 1,616 ms per partition, `ntt_msm_h_ms` between 588–855 ms, and `tail_msm_ms` around 90 ms. The memory pre-staging logic is also working correctly, allocating 12 GiB of VRAM without errors. A key theme emerging from this chunk is the gap between kernel-level and system-level performance. While the GPU kernel times are dramatically improved from the Phase 8 baseline, the end-to-end throughput under concurrency (41.0 s) is notably higher than the single-worker throughput (32.1 s). This indicates that PCIe bandwidth contention, CPU-side processing, or daemon scheduling are now the limiting factors. The assistant's immediate pivot to examining the detailed timing logs demonstrates a methodical, data-driven approach to identifying the next layer of bottlenecks in the multi-worker pipeline.

The 41-Second Paradox: How Phase 9's Dual-Worker Benchmark Revealed the Next Bottleneck 2338 words

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