Add reference counting for circuit_outputs dynamic array

[FrancoGiachetta]

Add reference counting to circuit_outputs dynamic array.

Closes #1234

We currently duplicate the circuit_outputs array for every time the get_output libfunc gets called. This is because this libfunc consumes the array. To avoid having to duplicate it, this PRs implements a reference counter to the circuit outputs array. This way, we don't need to duplicate anything, and the array will get freed only when the last reference gets dropped.

Benchmarks:

Programs

Programs were executed with release mode and optimization level 2 (in x86):

Program	base (s)	head (s)	Improvement
heavy_output_circuit	35.839	35.914	1x

Transactions

Tx	times executed	base (ms)	head (ms)	Improvement
0x77c686aebdada96749942f1c39d09345ed3e6db51172c467104f698ddda20bb	5000	44.24	44.30	1x
0x624b433291451e0e7b4dfed16a20a7a5c3e3a345f99261f403c8c6232787fc4	100	297.69	292.46	1.017x

Introduces Breaking Changes?

No.

• Created PR in sequencer
• Created PR in starknet-replay
• Updated the starknet-blocks.yml workflow to use these PRs.

These PRs should be merged after this one right away, in that order.

Checklist

• Linked to Github Issue.
• Unit tests added.
• Integration tests added.
• This change requires new documentation.
  • Documentation has been added/updated.

[github-actions]

Benchmark results Main vs HEAD.

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base dict_insert.cairo (JIT)	2.870 ± 0.020	2.840	2.905	1.03 ± 0.02
base dict_insert.cairo (AOT)	2.797 ± 0.040	2.736	2.853	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head dict_insert.cairo (JIT)	2.758 ± 0.047	2.681	2.820	1.07 ± 0.02
head dict_insert.cairo (AOT)	2.585 ± 0.035	2.535	2.647	1.00

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base dict_snapshot.cairo (JIT)	2.568 ± 0.036	2.515	2.624	1.16 ± 0.05
base dict_snapshot.cairo (AOT)	2.206 ± 0.085	2.156	2.442	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head dict_snapshot.cairo (JIT)	2.395 ± 0.024	2.357	2.431	1.04 ± 0.03
head dict_snapshot.cairo (AOT)	2.295 ± 0.057	2.215	2.369	1.00

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base factorial_2M.cairo (JIT)	2.642 ± 0.033	2.584	2.681	1.02 ± 0.02
base factorial_2M.cairo (AOT)	2.590 ± 0.027	2.547	2.633	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head factorial_2M.cairo (JIT)	2.765 ± 0.045	2.689	2.831	1.00 ± 0.02
head factorial_2M.cairo (AOT)	2.761 ± 0.045	2.700	2.817	1.00

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base fib_2M.cairo (JIT)	2.180 ± 0.024	2.144	2.223	1.02 ± 0.01
base fib_2M.cairo (AOT)	2.138 ± 0.019	2.102	2.174	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head fib_2M.cairo (JIT)	2.294 ± 0.026	2.257	2.340	1.03 ± 0.02
head fib_2M.cairo (AOT)	2.230 ± 0.026	2.184	2.269	1.00

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base linear_search.cairo (JIT)	2.370 ± 0.028	2.322	2.411	1.06 ± 0.02
base linear_search.cairo (AOT)	2.244 ± 0.023	2.222	2.293	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head linear_search.cairo (JIT)	2.392 ± 0.026	2.353	2.439	1.05 ± 0.02
head linear_search.cairo (AOT)	2.275 ± 0.029	2.238	2.322	1.00

Base

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
base logistic_map.cairo (JIT)	2.475 ± 0.038	2.442	2.573	1.09 ± 0.02
base logistic_map.cairo (AOT)	2.268 ± 0.023	2.247	2.329	1.00

Head

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
head logistic_map.cairo (JIT)	2.516 ± 0.031	2.457	2.550	1.06 ± 0.02
head logistic_map.cairo (AOT)	2.375 ± 0.038	2.306	2.425	1.00

[github-actions]

Benchmarking results

Benchmark for program dict_insert

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	10.933 ± 0.104	10.815	11.141	4.51 ± 0.05
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2.426 ± 0.014	2.412	2.447	1.00
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2.513 ± 0.014	2.488	2.538	1.04 ± 0.01

Benchmark for program dict_snapshot

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	544.8 ± 7.6	536.1	560.1	1.00
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2252.3 ± 25.5	2217.7	2303.4	4.13 ± 0.07
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2375.8 ± 36.1	2337.9	2428.7	4.36 ± 0.09

Benchmark for program factorial_2M

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	4.826 ± 0.024	4.796	4.860	1.75 ± 0.03
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2.754 ± 0.039	2.674	2.826	1.00
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2.794 ± 0.053	2.687	2.876	1.01 ± 0.02

Benchmark for program fib_2M

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	4.752 ± 0.022	4.724	4.781	2.07 ± 0.03
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2.295 ± 0.031	2.228	2.339	1.00
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2.322 ± 0.043	2.252	2.396	1.01 ± 0.02

Benchmark for program heavy_output_circuit

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [s]	Min [s]	Max [s]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	36.766 ± 0.451	36.012	37.524	1.00
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	51.694 ± 0.583	50.911	52.595	1.41 ± 0.02
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	50.422 ± 0.315	49.925	50.906	1.37 ± 0.02

Benchmark for program linear_search

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	577.6 ± 16.3	561.1	603.3	1.00
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2316.9 ± 41.3	2240.6	2411.5	4.01 ± 0.13
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2461.6 ± 25.6	2429.7	2504.7	4.26 ± 0.13

Benchmark for program logistic_map

Open benchmarks

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
Cairo-vm (Rust, Cairo 1)	407.7 ± 5.8	399.5	415.1	1.00
cairo-native (embedded AOT)	2505.1 ± 23.2	2465.0	2538.3	6.14 ± 0.10
cairo-native (embedded JIT using LLVM's ORC Engine)	2676.7 ± 53.0	2570.9	2727.5	6.57 ± 0.16

[github-actions]

✅ Code is now correctly formatted.

[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 96.72131% with 2 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 81.41%. Comparing base (f27f7fd) to head (fa134dd).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/libfuncs/circuit.rs	91.66%	2 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #1419      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   81.38%   81.41%   +0.03%     
==========================================
  Files         105      105              
  Lines       25805    25846      +41     
==========================================
+ Hits        21001    21043      +42     
+ Misses       4804     4803       -1     

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[JulianGCalderon]

If we see no performance improvement with this PR, I don't think we should merge for know it as it makes the code more complicated. Also, not seeing a performance increase might mean that there is something wrong with the implementation but we just don't know it yet.

[FrancoGiachetta]

I agree. I'll put it back to draft until we are sure what to do.