Perf: SIMD first-byte scan, eliminate try/catch and cached span in hot search loop#2
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Perf: SIMD first-byte scan, eliminate try/catch and cached span in hot search loop#2
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Co-authored-by: nt153133 <52430037+nt153133@users.noreply.github.com>
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[WIP] Identify performance optimizations for memory byte pattern search
Perf: SIMD first-byte scan, eliminate try/catch and cached span in hot search loop
Feb 27, 2026
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The byte pattern scanner's hot path had several avoidable costs that compound badly when scanning large (50–100 MB) executables.
Hot-path changes (
WitchHunt.cs)try/catchfromMatch: blocked JIT register allocation, loop hoisting, and inlining — bounds are already checked explicitly[AggressiveInlining]onMatch: eliminates call frame overhead on every byte of the bufferMatchstatic, passReadOnlySpan<byte>as parameter: removes repeatedReadOnlyMemory<byte>.Spanproperty access (allocates a new span header each call); cached once inFindSingleasvar data = Data.Spanstart.ToInt32(): was re-evaluated on every iteration of thewhilecondition despitestartbeing loop-invariantSIMD first-byte skip (
WitchHunt.cs)When no match is found and the first byte has no wildcard (
mask == 0xFF), replaced the manual byte-by-byte next-occurrence scan withMemoryExtensions.IndexOf:Pattern parsing (
Utilities.cs)Replaced
Hexchars.Contains(t)— an O(24) linear string scan per character — with directcharrange comparisons (>= '0' && <= '9', etc.). Removed the now-unusedHexcharsconstant.💬 We'd love your input! Share your thoughts on Copilot coding agent in our 2 minute survey.