The vvp_vector8_t constructor and destructor involve memory allocation
so it is best to pass these objects by reference as much as possible.
Also have the islands take more care not to perform resolution if the
inputs aren't really different.
NOTE: This is a port of commit 2f4e5bf5b6
from the "performance" branch, without the resolver scheduling changes.
This was causing test suite variances with pr1820472.v. It looks like
there might be a race in that program anyhow, but for now leave out the
resolver scheduling changes so that the rest of this commit can go in.