PHP/PECL C Memcache extension slowness?

[Justin Matlock]

This is an odd one, and I was wondering if anyone else was seeing this.
  
I just migrated my internal API for memcache that used Ryan's API to use the
latest and greatest pecl.php.net version.  I wrote PHP Code to select the
correct memcached server, hash the keys, etc., (basically stealing that from
the old PHP API).

And now my site is now *slow*.  Super slow.  Like... Running the site on a
33mhz 386 slow.  :)

It takes 40 seconds to set 1000 key/value pairs, and 40 seconds to read
them.  When I switch back to the PHP-only API, this happens almost instantly
(less than 0.4 seconds for both set and get).

The memcached server's not the problem:  it's a Dual Xeon 3ghz; with 12 GB
RAM, and *only* running memcache (6 daemons, on different IP's) 

Here's the PHP CLI code I used to test my theory that there's something
wrong with the C code:

--- snip ---

#!/usr/local/bin/php
<?php

$memcache = memcache_pconnect('10.20.0.10', 11211);

$start = time();
for ($x=0;$x<1000;$x++)
{
        $memcache->set("test_".$x,md5(microtime));
        echo "$x\n";
}
$end = time()-$start;
echo "+++ SET in $end seconds\n\n\n";

$start = time();
for ($x=0;$x<1000;$x++)
{
        $get = $memcache->get("test_".$x);
}
$end = time()-$start;
echo "+++ GET in $end seconds\n\n\n";

-- /snip ---

HP 4.3.4 (cli) (built: Mar 11 2004 13:48:16)
Copyright (c) 1997-2004 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies
    with Turck MMCache v2.4.6, Copyright (c) 2002-2003 TurckSoft, St.
Petersburg, by Dmitry Stogov
    with Zend Extension Manager v1.0.1, Copyright (c) 2003, by Zend
Technologies
    with Zend Optimizer v2.5.1, Copyright (c) 1998-2004, by Zend
Technologies

application server:  Linux omega 2.6.4-rc2-mm1 #1 SMP Wed Mar 10 20:53:44
EST 2004 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
Memcached server: Linux epsilon 2.6.4-rc1-mm2 #2 SMP Sun Mar 7 22:46:48 EST
2004 i686 Intel(R) XEON(TM) CPU 3.2GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
Web servers:  Linux alpha 2.6.3-gentoo-r2 #2 Sun Mar 7 15:30:36 EST 2004
i686 Celeron (Coppermine) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux 

Memcached v1.10 w/epoll
Libevent 0.7c
Memcache.c (from pecl.php.net):  /* $Id: memcache.c,v 1.8 2004/03/11
17:41:37 fmk Exp $ */
(but I saw the exact same behavior with cvs v1.7)

Everything on the system is the latest and greatest, compliments of
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 on Gentoo.  I get the same results with PHP 4.3.5RC3
and PHP 5.0RC4 (although everything *else* breaks under 5.0.. Heh). 

...

A tcpdump shows that it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing...
Connecting at the beginning, then issuing the "set key flag
length\r\n[data]\r\n".  No extra traffic.  DNS is also idle (which it should
be).  It's just slow between each set/get.

Am I missing something obvious here?  This should be blindingly fast -- as
much as 2x as fast as the PHP-only API.  My sample block doesn't even have
to create a hash to figure out what server to use...

Justin