How to calculate MIPS for an algorithm for ARM processor

Question

I have been asked recently to produced the MIPS (million of instructions per second) for an algorithm we have developed. The algorithm is exposed by a set of C-style functions.

Answer 1

MIPS is generally used to measure the capability of a processor.

Algorithms usually take either:

1. a certain amount of time (when running on a certain processor)
2. a certain number of instructions (depending on the architecture)

Describing an algorithm in terms of instructions per second would seem like a strange measure, but of course I don't know what your algorithm does.

To come up with a meaningful measure, I would suggest that you set up a test which allows you to measure the average time taken for your algorithm to complete. Number of assembly instructions would be a reasonable measure, but it can be difficult to count them! Your best bet is something like this (pseudo-code):

const num_trials = 1000000
start_time = timer()
for (i = 1 to num_trials)
{
    runAlgorithm(randomData)
}
time_taken = timer() - start_time
average_time = time_taken / num_trials