Re: Stupid question

[irsman@iastate.edu (Ian Schmidt)]

In article <mobrienCqu7AE.4JD@netcom.com> mobrien@netcom.com (Michael O'Brien) writes:
>The 6502 and 65C02 processors executed about one instruction every 2-6 
>clocks.  The 486 does about one instruction every 1-3 clocks.  So actually,
>a 1 MHz Apple is *slower* than what we think of as 1 MHz.

But at the time, it was competing with 8086 and 286 cpus running 10-20 cycles
per instruction, which is why a 1 mhz IIe kicked the 4.77 mhz PC's ass :)

>On the other hand it could do reasonably fast graphics, mostly because the
>frame buffer was just so small.

That and it had dual buffers with hardware switching, something modern SVGA
adaptors have rediscovered :)

-- 
Ian Schmidt / irsman@iastate.edu / irsman@cs.iastate.edu
"The look in your eyes as you head for the door is a cold fire" - Neil Peart