Re: Accelerator //e

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes...

>spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)
>
>>With my own Accelerator IIe this seems to be true as a number of
>>titles still run at 1 MHz (although I can't be sure, since my card is
>>damaged and doesn't work quite right). I _do_ know the card, when
>>it is working, actually runs 8-bit software faster than my IIc Plus
>>or IIgs with caching accelerators.
>
>Are you saying that a 3.6mhz non-caching accelerator can run
>things faster than a 15mhz caching accelerator like the Zip GS?

    Yes and no. It has to do with the caching accelerator dropping back
down to 2.6 MHz under certain conditions. For example, if you look at
Atari's Ms.Pac-Man for the 8-bit Apple II, running it on my 15 MHz GS
generally runs it much faster, _except_ when the speaker is toggled
(i.e. eating dots or when the ghosts turn blue). During that time, it
drops to 2.6 MHz--it's always speeding up and slowing down.

    Now, if you compare it with the Accelerator IIe, it is constantly
running at a fixed rate of 3.5 MHz--speaker toggling or not. So even
when there are sound effects playing, it actually runs about a full
megahertz faster than my 15 MHz GS (not much, but it is noticable).

>If this is true, CMD's non-caching accelerators for the Commodore
>64 and 128, with 64K and 128K of memory respectively, must
>really pack a punch at 20mhz.

    Probably, but your still dealing with the limitations of the
65C816 processor (even an ancient 386SX does math better, and in
a lot of cases a 286 or 8086) and the bus speed of the C64/C128.

    A ZipGS or TransWarp GS really smooths out the performance of
a IIgs, even to the point where it appears a fast machine when
moving windows, scrolling and whatnot, but the machine really
pales in comparison to even something like a 386 (at least it's
possible to do a graphical web browser on a 386SX-16, but the
GS is bogged down trying to decode JPEG data and probably why
SIS turned out ot be just a fancy version of Lynx).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca