It came in under PHP 7.0 in most other benchmarks that were issued (so higher than 5.6 but less than 7.0).
@Voycey, not sure about that, but HHVM has its own JIT engine.
That would be great. Maybe it would also be great to try Zephir to see if it makes any difference, although it is based in Zend Engine. I hope Christian like the idea.