::: Area #31 (Obsolete......... [General])
Message: #1135 (Read 4 times, has 0 replies, 3164 bytes)
Date   : Mon Oct 13 16:44:48 1997
From   : Glenn Richards of fidonet#2:253/401
To     : Jonathan Harston
Subject: Re: 8-Bit Benchmarks with Primes Sieve

Commander Harston, we have a problem...
JH> Of course, with the Risc-PC, all of Basic will be in the code cache, and
JH> all of the program will fit in the data cache, so the results will
JH> probably be astronomical.

Not quite, your statement is only true if the RISC PC has a StrongARM fitted.
There are still several thousand with ARM610 and ARM710 processors, mine
included.

Here's what I got on my 30MHz ARM610:

BBC BASIC CPU Timing Program
Real REPEAT loop    Speed: 204.00MHz
Integer REPEAT loop Speed: 240.00MHz
Real FOR loop       Speed: 170.00MHz
Integer FOR loop    Speed: 178.00MHz
Floating-Point Test Speed: 665.00MHz
Ackermann Recursion Speed: 181.78MHz
Combined Average    Speed: 308.20MHz

Compared to a BBC B running at 2.00MHz

Test conducted on a 10Mb RPC600 (2Mb VRAM) at a screen resolution of 1152x848
in 32,000 colours. Because of the VRAM, the screen mode would not affect the
speed test as it does on the A5000.

And on my A5000 (ARM3, 25MHz):

BBC BASIC CPU Timing Program
Real REPEAT loop    Speed: 204.00MHz
Integer REPEAT loop Speed: 120.00MHz
Real FOR loop       Speed: 127.50MHz
Integer FOR loop    Speed: 89.00MHz
Floating-Point Test Speed: 665.00MHz
Ackermann Recursion Speed: 127.25MHz
Combined Average    Speed: 250.90MHz

Compared to a BBC B running at 2.00MHz

Bear in mind my A5000 is considerably expanded, having upclocked RAM, a
ColourCard gfx accelerator (equivalent to adding VRAM) amongst other things.
The test was run in mode 102 (800x600x16, VRAM refresh 25Hz), the ColourCard
minimises the effect of the relatively high screen resolution.

I can also run this test on an A310 (ARM3), A3000 (ARM2) and A3010 (ARM250).

Please post any follow-ups to ACORN_CHAT_UK, as Acorns aren't obsolete and
this is getting kinda offtopic!

JH> Archimedes A5000       >25MHz  (from memory)

The A5000 isn't an Archimedes, as it doesn't have the "A" logo. The last
Archimedes to be made was the A540. The differences between the A540 and A5000
are:

- High-speed fixed serial port
- Bi-directional printer port
- High-density (1.6Mb) floppy drive
- RISC OS 3 as standard (3.1 on later machines)
- New style casing with space for 2 floppies & HD (2 HDs at a push)
- IDE interface on motherboard instead of supplied SCSI card
- Max memory 4Mb (unofficially 8Mb) instead of 16Mb
- ARM3 soldered to m/b (A540 has a CPU card like the RPC)
- A5000 timing logic is in a new IOEB chip
- Due to new glue logic, A5000 is 25% faster than same CPU in A540

If anyone has an A540 that they're getting rid of, mail me now!

Please reply in ACORN_CHAT_UK or ACORN_HARDWARE_UK.

Glenn

... I have 240 airconditioning in my car; 2 windows down at 40mph.
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