Re: DiskMaker 8 Version 1.1 Released

[aiiadict@gmail.com]

Andy McFadden wrote above:

>>Most modern implementations will assume the existence of an FPU.

and Henry of GSE-Reactive wrote:

>We'll just have to hurry up and clone the TransWarp


if you clone the Transwarp, how about putting an FPU on board?

There were several options available for the apple II:


off the top of my head...

Applied Engineering FastMath Coprocessor
FPE (floating point engine)

you could at least have a socket on the board, where you could plug
in an FPU chip..

I have several applications written that would benefit from an FPU, and
they could easily be modified to use a hardware unit instead of the
6502 code that is doing all of the math now...

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good chip?

I have a FastMath, but I've never used it.  I should modify some of my
code to try using it.  I think it came with a program that would modify
the AppleSoft BASIC FP routines to use the FPU instead of the ROM,
so

10 D = A+B-C

would automatically be calculated by the FastMath

My PCB CAD program would benefit from the speed of
a FP processor.  All coordinates of lines, holes, pads, etc
are stored as FP, and it takes a while for Asoft to scale
them to the screen.  The magnify "tool" also uses asoft
FP to zoom in to a drawing, and to determine which
drawing elements will/won't be shown.

The robot software would benefit too, Asoft FP is used
for sonar calculations, which include many SIN, COS
statements.   This is the slowest part of the software.


Rich