Re: Math co-processor? What a heck?!

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Paul Dunkel <pdunkel@cc.hut.fi> wrote:

> I have this math-processor in on of my GS' slots. Does some programs
> really use it?

It depends exactly which card it is.  If it is a "Number Cruncher" or an
Innovative Systems "FPE" card (both of which use the Motorola 68881
FPU), then any program which uses the IIgs SANE toolset (Standard Apple
Numerics Environment) will be able to automatically make use of the
card, PROVIDED you have the necessary patch software installed.

This produces a reasonable speed improvement in floating point
calculations.  For a considerable increase in speed, some programs are
written to use the card directly (avoiding the overhead of calling
SANE).  ORCA/C and ORCA/Pascal include support for this (a special
version of the program must be compiled, and it won't work if the card
is not present).

In theory, the card could also be used by programs which use the 8-bit
implementation of SANE (e.g. the AppleWorks Spreadsheet module).  This
would require specific patches for each such application.

Applesoft BASIC doesn't use SANE, and will not use the card (unless a
program is specially written to use it, which would require machine
language support, and probably wouldn't be worth the effort, since you'd
have to keep converting floating point numbers between SANE and
Applesoft formats).


If the card is not either of these types, then I don't know what the
situation is regarding software that supports it.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand