chore: add pow poly bench and link optimization issues

barretenberg/cpp/src/barretenberg/commitment_schemes/ipa/ipa.hpp

@@ -235,6 +235,9 @@ template <typename Curve> class IPA {
         // Compute G_zero
         // First construct s_vec
         std::vector<Fr> s_vec(poly_degree);
+        // TODO(https://github.com/AztecProtocol/barretenberg/issues/857): This code is not efficient as its O(nlogn).
+        // This can be optimized to be linear by computing a tree of products. Its very readable, so we're
+        // leaving it unoptimized for now.
         run_loop_in_parallel_if_effective(
             poly_degree,
             [&s_vec, &round_challenges_inv, log_poly_degree](size_t start, size_t end) {

barretenberg/cpp/src/barretenberg/polynomials/pow.bench.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#include "barretenberg/polynomials/pow.hpp"
+#include "barretenberg/ecc/curves/bn254/fr.hpp"
+#include <benchmark/benchmark.h>
+
+using namespace benchmark;
+using namespace bb;
+
+namespace {
+
+void compute_pow_poly(benchmark::State& state)
+{
+    // just set up huge vector
+    std::vector<bb::fr> betas{ 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
+                               15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 };
+
+    for (auto _ : state) {
+        int64_t num_betas = state.range(0);
+        std::vector<bb::fr> cur_betas(betas.begin(), betas.begin() + num_betas);
+        PowPolynomial pow{ cur_betas };
+        pow.compute_values();
+    }
+}
+
+BENCHMARK(compute_pow_poly)->Unit(benchmark::kMillisecond)->Arg(20);
+
+} // namespace
+BENCHMARK_MAIN();

barretenberg/cpp/src/barretenberg/polynomials/pow.hpp

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 #pragma once
+#include "barretenberg/common/compiler_hints.hpp"
+#include "barretenberg/common/op_count.hpp"
 #include "barretenberg/common/thread.hpp"
 
 #include <cstddef>
@@ -121,8 +123,9 @@ template <typename FF> struct PowPolynomial {
      * @brief Given \vec{β} = {β_0,...,β_{d-1}} compute pow_\vec{β}(i) for i=0,...,2^{d}-1
      *
      */
-    void compute_values()
+    BB_PROFILE void compute_values()
     {
+        BB_OP_COUNT_TIME();
         size_t pow_size = 1 << betas.size();
         pow_betas = std::vector<FF>(pow_size);
 
@@ -136,6 +139,11 @@ template <typename FF> struct PowPolynomial {
         size_t num_threads = std::min(desired_num_threads, max_num_threads); // fewer than max if justified
         num_threads = num_threads > 0 ? num_threads : 1;                     // ensure num threads is >= 1
         size_t iterations_per_thread = pow_size / num_threads;               // actual iterations per thread
+
+        // TODO(https://github.com/AztecProtocol/barretenberg/issues/864): This computation is asymtotically slow as it
+        // does pow_size * log(pow_size) work. However, in practice, its super efficient because its trivially
+        // parallelizable and only takes 45ms for the whole 6 iter IVC benchmark. Its also very readable, so we're
+        // leaving it unoptimized for now.
         parallel_for(num_threads, [&](size_t thread_idx) {
             size_t start = thread_idx * iterations_per_thread;
             size_t end = (thread_idx + 1) * iterations_per_thread;