Add compare subcommand to README (#664)

* Add compare subcommand to README

* Fix rendering issue

* Add compare.md

* Add breakpoints

* Clean up

* Add sample plots

* Adjust size

* Add height to plot

* Add a section about default visualization

* Address feedback

src/c++/perf_analyzer/genai-perf/README.md

@@ -194,6 +194,83 @@ Request throughput (per sec): 4.44
 
 See [Tutorial](docs/tutorial.md) for additional examples.
 
+</br>
+
+# Visualization
+
+GenAI-Perf can also generate various plots that visualize the performance of the
+current profile run. This is disabled by default but users can easily enable it
+by passing the `--generate-plots` option when running the benchmark:
+
+```bash
+genai-perf \
+  -m gpt2 \
+  --service-kind triton \
+  --backend tensorrtllm \
+  --streaming \
+  --concurrency 1 \
+  --generate-plots
+```
+
+This will generate a [set of default plots](docs/compare.md#example-plots) such as:
+- Time to first token (TTFT) analysis
+- Request latency analysis
+- TTFT vs Number of input tokens
+- Inter token latencies vs Token positions
+- Number of input tokens vs Number of output tokens
+
+
+## Using `compare` Subcommand to Visualize Multiple Runs
+
+The `compare` subcommand in GenAI-Perf facilitates users in comparing multiple
+profile runs and visualizing the differences through plots.
+
+### Usage
+Assuming the user possesses two profile export JSON files,
+namely `profile1.json` and `profile2.json`,
+they can execute the `compare` subcommand using the `--files` option:
+
+```bash
+genai-perf compare --files profile1.json profile2.json
+```
+
+Executing the above command will perform the following actions under the
+`compare` directory:
+1. Generate a YAML configuration file (e.g. `config.yaml`) containing the
+metadata for each plot generated during the comparison process.
+2. Automatically generate the [default set of plots](docs/compare.md#example-plots)
+(e.g. TTFT vs. Number of Input Tokens) that compare the two profile runs.
+
+```
+compare
+├── config.yaml
+├── distribution_of_input_tokens_to_generated_tokens.jpeg
+├── request_latency.jpeg
+├── time_to_first_token.jpeg
+├── time_to_first_token_vs_number_of_input_tokens.jpeg
+├── token-to-token_latency_vs_output_token_position.jpeg
+└── ...
+```
+
+### Customization
+Users have the flexibility to iteratively modify the generated YAML configuration
+file to suit their specific requirements.
+They can make alterations to the plots according to their preferences and execute
+the command with the `--config` option followed by the path to the modified
+configuration file:
+
+```bash
+genai-perf compare --config compare/config.yaml
+```
+
+This command will regenerate the plots based on the updated configuration settings,
+enabling users to refine the visual representation of the comparison results as
+per their needs.
+
+See [Compare documentation](docs/compare.md) for more details.
+
+</br>
+
 # Model Inputs
 
 GenAI-Perf supports model input prompts from either synthetically generated
@@ -203,8 +280,7 @@ inputs, or from the HuggingFace
 specified using the `--input-dataset` CLI option.
 
 When the dataset is synthetic, you can specify the following options:
-* `--num-prompts <int>`: The number of unique prompts to generate as stimulus,
-  >= 1.
+* `--num-prompts <int>`: The number of unique prompts to generate as stimulus, >= 1.
 * `--synthetic-input-tokens-mean <int>`: The mean of number of tokens in the
   generated prompts when using synthetic data, >= 1.
 * `--synthetic-input-tokens-stddev <int>`: The standard deviation of number of
@@ -215,8 +291,7 @@ When the dataset is coming from HuggingFace, you can specify the following
 options:
 * `--input-dataset {openorca,cnn_dailymail}`: HuggingFace dataset to use for
   benchmarking.
-* `--num-prompts <int>`: The number of unique prompts to generate as stimulus,
-  >= 1.
+* `--num-prompts <int>`: The number of unique prompts to generate as stimulus, >= 1.
 
 When the dataset is coming from a file, you can specify the following
 options:
@@ -240,6 +315,8 @@ You can optionally set additional model inputs with the following option:
   model with a singular value, such as `stream:true` or `max_tokens:5`. This
   flag can be repeated to supply multiple extra inputs.
 
+</br>
+
 # Metrics
 
 GenAI-Perf collects a diverse set of metrics that captures the performance of
@@ -254,6 +331,8 @@ the inference server.
 | <span id="output_token_throughput_metric">Output Token Throughput</span> | Total number of output tokens from benchmark divided by benchmark duration | None–one value per benchmark |
 | <span id="request_throughput_metric">Request Throughput</span> | Number of final responses from benchmark divided by benchmark duration | None–one value per benchmark |
 
+</br>
+
 # Command Line Options
 
 ##### `-h`

src/c++/perf_analyzer/genai-perf/docs/compare.md

@@ -0,0 +1,251 @@
+<!--
+Copyright (c) 2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+
+Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+are met:
+ * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+ * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+ * Neither the name of NVIDIA CORPORATION nor the names of its
+   contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
+   from this software without specific prior written permission.
+
+THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
+PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
+CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
+EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
+PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
+PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY
+OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
+(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
+OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+-->
+
+# GenAI-Perf Compare Subcommand
+
+There are two approaches for the users to use the `compare` subcommand to create
+plots across multiple runs. First is to directly pass the profile export files
+with `--files` option
+
+## Running initially with `--files` option
+
+If the user does not have a YAML configuration file,
+they can run the `compare` subcommand with the `--files` option to generate a
+set of default plots as well as a pre-filled YAML config file for the plots.
+
+```bash
+genai-perf compare --files profile1.json profile2.json profile3.json
+```
+
+This will generate the default plots and compare across the three runs.
+GenAI-Perf will also generate an initial YAML configuration file `config.yaml`
+that is pre-filled with plot configurations as following:
+
+```yaml
+plot1:
+  title: Time to First Token
+  x_metric: ''
+  y_metric: time_to_first_tokens
+  x_label: Time to First Token (ms)
+  y_label: ''
+  width: 1200
+  height: 700
+  type: box
+  paths:
+  - profile1.json
+  - profile2.json
+  - profile3.json
+  output: compare
+plot2:
+  title: Request Latency
+  x_metric: ''
+  y_metric: request_latencies
+  x_label: Request Latency (ms)
+  y_label: ''
+  width: 1200
+  height: 700
+  type: box
+  paths:
+  - profile1.json
+  - profile2.json
+  - profile3.json
+  output: compare
+plot3:
+  title: Distribution of Input Tokens to Generated Tokens
+  x_metric: num_input_tokens
+  y_metric: num_output_tokens
+  x_label: Number of Input Tokens Per Request
+  y_label: Number of Generated Tokens Per Request
+  width: 1200
+  height: 450
+  type: heatmap
+  paths:
+  - profile1.json
+  - profile2.json
+  - profile3.json
+  output: compare
+plot4:
+  title: Time to First Token vs Number of Input Tokens
+  x_metric: num_input_tokens
+  y_metric: time_to_first_tokens
+  x_label: Number of Input Tokens
+  y_label: Time to First Token (ms)
+  width: 1200
+  height: 700
+  type: scatter
+  paths:
+  - profile1.json
+  - profile2.json
+  - profile3.json
+  output: compare
+plot5:
+  title: Token-to-Token Latency vs Output Token Position
+  x_metric: token_positions
+  y_metric: inter_token_latencies
+  x_label: Output Token Position
+  y_label: Token-to-Token Latency (ms)
+  width: 1200
+  height: 700
+  type: scatter
+  paths:
+  - profile1.json
+  - profile2.json
+  - profile3.json
+  output: compare
+```
+
+Once the user has the YAML configuration file,
+they can repeat the process of editing the config file and running with
+`--config` option to re-generate the plots iteratively.
+
+```bash
+# edit
+vi config.yaml
+
+# re-generate the plots
+genai-perf compare --config config.yaml
+```
+
+## Running directly with `--config` option
+
+If the user would like to create a custom plot (other than the default ones provided),
+they can build their own YAML configuration file that contains the information
+about the plots they would like to generate.
+For instance, if the user would like to see how the inter token latencies change
+by the number of output tokens, which is not part of the default plots,
+they could add the following YAML block to the file:
+
+```yaml
+plot1:
+  title: Inter Token Latency vs Output Tokens
+  x_metric: num_output_tokens
+  y_metric: inter_token_latencies
+  x_label: Num Output Tokens
+  y_label: Avg ITL (ms)
+  width: 1200
+  height: 450
+  type: scatter
+  paths:
+    - <path-to-profile-export-file>
+    - <path-to-profile-export-file>
+  output: compare
+```
+
+After adding the lines, the user can run the following command to generate the
+plots specified in the configuration file (in this case, `config.yaml`):
+
+```bash
+genai-perf compare --config config.yaml
+```
+
+The user can check the generated plots under the output directory:
+```
+compare/
+├── inter_token_latency_vs_output_tokens.jpeg
+└── ...
+```
+
+## YAML Schema
+
+Here are more details about the YAML configuration file and its stricture.
+The general YAML schema for the plot configuration looks as following:
+
+```yaml
+plot1:
+  title: [str]
+  x_metric: [str]
+  y_metric: [str]
+  x_label: [str]
+  y_label: [str]
+  width: [int]
+  height: [int]
+  type: [scatter,box,heatmap]
+  paths:
+    - [str]
+    - ...
+  output: [str]
+
+plot2:
+  title: [str]
+  x_metric: [str]
+  y_metric: [str]
+  x_label: [str]
+  y_label: [str]
+  width: [int]
+  height: [int]
+  type: [scatter,box,heatmap]
+  paths:
+    - [str]
+    - ...
+  output: [str]
+
+# add more plots
+```
+
+The user can add as many plots they would like to generate by adding the plot
+blocks in the configuration file (they have a key pattern of `plot<#>`,
+but that is not required and the user can set it to any arbitrary string).
+For each plot block, the user can specify the following configurations:
+- `title`: The title of the plot.
+- `x_metric`: The name of the metric to be used on the x-axis.
+- `y_metric`: The name of the metric to be used on the y-axis.
+- `x_label`: The x-axis label (or description)
+- `y_label`: The y-axis label (or description)
+- `width`: The width of the entire plot
+- `height`: The height of the entire plot
+- `type`: The type of the plot. It must be one of the three: `scatter`, `box`,
+or `heatmap`.
+- `paths`: List of paths to the profile export files to compare.
+- `output`: The path to the output directory to store all the plots and YAML
+configuration file.
+
+> [!Note]
+> User *MUST* provide at least one valid path to the profile export file.
+
+
+
+## Example Plots
+
+Here are the list of sample plots that gets created by default from running the
+`compare` subcommand:
+
+### Distribution of Input Tokens to Generated Tokens
+<img src="assets/distribution_of_input_tokens_to_generated_tokens.jpeg" width="800" height="300" />
+
+### Request Latency Analysis
+<img src="assets/request_latency.jpeg" width="800" height="300" />
+
+### Time to First Token Analysis
+<img src="assets/time_to_first_token.jpeg" width="800" height="300" />
+
+### Time to First Token vs. Number of Input Tokens
+<img src="assets/time_to_first_token_vs_number_of_input_tokens.jpeg" width="800" height="300" />
+
+### Token-to-Token Latency vs. Output Token Position
+<img src="assets/token-to-token_latency_vs_output_token_position.jpeg" width="800" height="300" />
+