Re: 32K vs 64K on ZIP GS...

[jlee@clyde.ICS.UCI.EDU (Joseph)]

Thomas Dorris (twdorr01@vulcan.spd.louisville.edu) wrote:
: I need to decide whether the extra $100 it'd cost to purchase a 10 Mhz
: Zip GS with 64K cache over a 9 Mhz with 32K cache is justifiable... My

Possibly.  In an accelerator, the bigger the cache, the more data gets
cached, and the better the effective speed of the accelerator.  This
is because the accelerator is able to save more data in the cache for
later high speed retrievals then slowing down and getting it from main
memory.

An example from an issue of NAUG, an 8mhz/32k accelerator will always
outrun a 10mhz/8k accelerator.

Possibly, because I'm not sure if $100 is a reasonable difference between
32k and 64k SRAMS.  You might want to try getting the 9 mhz and upgrading
to 64k yourself for a better deal.

: Also, looking at the Benchmarks from the accelerator faq, it looks like a
: TWGS running at 15 Mhz with 32K cache runs considerably faster than a
: Zip GS at the same speed with 64K cache... Is this expected and should

The TWGS might just be faster at caching some types of code.  Those
ratings are not definitive ratings because the Zip IS faster at graphics I/O
and possibly some other types of I/O.  You would not really notice the
difference between the two when using either.

: I consider waiting until someone is ready to part with a TWGS 15 Mhz
: before buying a Zip GS (I currently have a TWGS at 8 Mhz with whatever
: stock cache they put on there).

Sounds like you got a 7mhz/8k TWGS unless you upgraded your crystal speed.

It's also harder to upgrade a TWGS to such speeds than a Zip.  The TWGS
needs several GAL upgrades whereas the Zip requires I believe only about
3 chip changes to go 14mhz (counting the new CPU).

Joseph
--
jlee@clyde.ics.uci.edu   | Have you watched your Koko Wa GreenWood, Yotoden,
-------------------------+ Gundam 0083, Bubble Gum Crisis/Crash!, Video Girl
II(> Creative 'Ware <)II | Ai, Tenchi Miyou, Ah! My Goddess, Maison Ikokku,
 Cal-Animage Epsilon VP  | PatLabor, Ranma 1/2, and Five Star Stories today?