a2fan@hotmail.com wrote:
On Aug 29, 1:36 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:But the 8MHz Zip Chip is the coolest and fastest, by far (not counting the Zip clone, the 10MHz RocketChip, which is quite rare). It makes the //e fast enough that development in the native environment is quite acceptable.I really don't notice a significant difference between 1MHz and 8MHz when I'm coding. The computer is always waiting on me as I enter my next brilliant line of code. When I assemble, disassemble, compile, parse and analyze or whatever, I've found the media I'm reading and writing to is much more relevant, ie CFFA or other mass storage vs floppy. The only time I really appreciate the speed increase is when I'm loading someone's huge AppleWorks spreadsheet for conversion and migration to another platform.
When assembling a large program from CFFA, processor clock speed makes a *big* difference! I'd estimate it's at least 4-5x faster than 1MHz. I regularly do Merlin assemblies that take several a couple of minutes (listing to screen) or about 10 seconds without listing--this on a //e with an 8MHz Zip Chip. Without the Zip enabled, they take at least ten minutes with listing (painful!) and about a minute without listing. I've never bothered timing them exactly, but the subjective difference is pretty extreme.
If someone manages to clone, or better yet, come out with something that's an improvement over the ZipChip ... I'd buy several.
You're not alone! -michael AppleCrate II: An Apple II "blade server"! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."