Redefine Opcode/Syscall price

[Qiao-Jin]

Summary or problem description
As recently there has been several discussions about problems in Opcode/Syscall price definition (#1911, #1877, #1875, #1863, #1855, etc), I did a test upon opcode time costs and the result is as follows.

Opcode	Time(microsecond)	Price	Price / Time
PUSHINT8	0.164	30	182.9268293
PUSHINT256	0.164	120	731.7073171
PUSHA	0.1834	120	654.3075245
PUSHNULL	0.0717	30	418.4100418
PUSHDATA1	0.151	180	1192.05298
PUSHDATA2	0.151	13000	86092.71523
PUSHDATA4	0.151	110000	728476.8212
PUSHM1	0.1631	30	183.9362354
NOP	0.0326	30	920.2453988
JMP	0.05	70	1400
JMP_L	0.0418	70	1674.641148
JMPIF	0.0684	70	1023.391813
JMPIF_L	0.07	70	1000
JMPIFNOT	0.0706	70	991.5014164
JMPIFNOT_L	0.0736	70	951.0869565
JMPEQ	0.1045	70	669.8564593
JMPEQ_L	0.1049	70	667.3021926
JMPNE	0.1074	70	651.7690875
JMPNE_L	0.1062	70	659.13371
CALL	0.0581	22000	378657.4871
CALL_L	0.0562	22000	391459.0747
CALLA	0.2749	22000	80029.10149
ABORT	NAN	30	NAN
ASSERT	0.0616	30	487.012987
THROW	0.461	22000	47722.34273
TRY	0.1836	100	544.6623094
ENDTRY	0.053	100	1886.792453
ENDFINALLY	0.461	100	216.9197397
RET	0.0265	0	0
SYSCALL	NAN	0	NAN
DEPTH	0.1545	60	388.3495146
DROP	0.061	60	983.6065574
NIP	0.0718	60	835.6545961
XDROP	33.21	400	12.04456489
CLEAR	18	400	22.22222222
DUP	0.0691	60	868.3068017
OVER	0.0749	60	801.0680908
PICK	0.083	60	722.8915663
TUCK	0.0847	60	708.3825266
SWAP	0.0886	60	677.2009029
ROT	0.0885	60	677.9661017
ROLL	0.1193	400	3352.891869
REVERSE3	0.0467	60	1284.796574
REVERSE4	0.049	60	1224.489796
REVERSEN	1.953125	400	204.8
INITSSLOT	3.805	400	105.1248357
INITSLOT	14.4598	800	55.3257998
LDSFLD	0.1064	60	563.9097744
STSFLD	0.1164	60	515.4639175
LDLOC	0.1031	60	581.9592629
STLOC	0.1153	60	520.3816132
LDARG	0.1081	60	555.0416281
STARG	0.1156	60	519.0311419
NEWBUFFER	9	80000	8888.888889
MEMCPY	135.5	80000	590.4059041
CAT	709.5	80000	112.7554616
SUBSTR	696.5	80000	114.8600144
LEFT	690	80000	115.942029
RIGHT	713.5	80000	112.1233357
INVERT	0.2681	100	372.9951511
AND	0.2627	200	761.324705
OR	0.268	200	746.2686567
XOR	0.2669	200	749.3443237
EQUAL(min)	0.11	200	1818.181818
EQUAL(max)	8	200	25
SIGN	0.2304	100	434.0277778
ABS	0.2345	100	426.4392324
NEGATE	0.2024	100	494.0711462
INC	0.2491	100	401.4452027
DEC	0.2477	100	403.7141704
ADD	0.3015	200	663.3499171
SUB	0.2981	200	670.9158001
MUL	0.3189	300	940.7337723
DIV	0.3155	300	950.8716323
MOD	0.2811	300	1067.235859
SHL	1.0208	300	293.8871473
SHR	1.5754	300	190.4278279
NOT	0.0806	100	1240.694789
BOOLAND	0.1065	200	1877.934272
BOOLOR	0.1032	200	1937.984496
NZ	0.0841	100	1189.060642
NUMEQUAL	0.1155	200	1731.601732
NUMNOTEQUAL	0.1133	200	1765.225066
LT	0.1154	200	1733.102253
LE	0.1154	200	1733.102253
GT	0.1185	200	1687.763713
GE	0.115	200	1739.130435
MIN	0.3261	200	613.308801
MAX	0.2834	200	705.716302
WITHIN	0.1428	200	1400.560224
PACK	126.3	7000	55.42359462
UNPACK	54	7000	129.6296296
NEWARRAY0	0.5639	400	709.3456287
NEWARRAY	61.8	15000	242.7184466
NEWARRAY_T	62.8	15000	238.8535032
NEWSTRUCT0	0.5716	400	699.790063
NEWSTRUCT	64	15000	234.375
NEWMAP	0.7854	200	254.6473135
SIZE	0.64	150	234.375
HASKEY	1.3	270000	207692.3077
KEYS	1.0354	500	482.9051574
VALUES	1400	7000	5
PICKITEM	0.8	270000	337500
APPEND	1134	15000	13.22751323
SETITEM	1037	270000	260.3664417
REVERSEITEMS	500	500	1
REMOVE	0.8	500	625
CLEARITEMS	300	400	1.333333333
ISNULL	0.15	60	400
ISTYPE	0.27	60	222.2222222
CONVERT	0.1229	80000	650935.7201

In this test, the time cost of each opcode is got from scenarios where they tend to cost as much time as possible under current limits. Besides, some opcodes which are similiar in functionality are omitted.

From the result we can see, Price / Time factor differs drastically between opcodes. Some differences are because of different RAM cost(i.e. PUSHDATA1 vs PUSHDATA4), some are because of system calls, but still many others are not seemingly reasonable.

Furthermore, we should focus on opcodes whose Price / Time factor is too high or below 100 (these opcodes violate "1 gas per second during Persist" rule defined here and can be used in DoS attacks).

Besides, the price of some SYSCALL (i.e. Vote in #1877) is also not reasonable.

Neo Version

• Neo 3

Where in the software does this update applies to?

• VM