The execution profiler of SICStus Prolog 4.5.1 reported the following to me:
| ?- print_profile.
insns try/retry called name
----------------------------------------------------------------
...
----------------------------------------------------------------
1769156/8845768 prolog:evaluate/2
7076612/8845768 prolog:evaluate2/2
76073600 7076616 8845768 prolog:evaluate2/2
7076612/8845768 prolog:evaluate2/2
----------------------------------------------------------------
...
Out of curiosity: what is evaluate2/2 and how can I find out which parts of Prolog code call it?
(My best guess is this: evaluate/2 and evaluate2/2 evaluate arithmetic expressions which are still variable when some (is)/2 goals are compiled...)
Your guess is correct. The prolog:evaluate/2 and prolog:evaluate2/2 predicates are helpers used when the expression cannot be evaluated directly in C (or in assembly with the JIT compiler). Typically because a (sub-) expression was a variable at compile time and then a compound term at runtime.
They are also called when interpreted code (asserted or consulted) evaluates arithmetic expressions with is/2 and other predicates.
There is no way to know these things except asking the SICStus developers (like me).