Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!RIO.MT.CS.CMU.EDU!bjm From: bjm@RIO.MT.CS.CMU.EDU (Bret Musser) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti Subject: Re: Myarc Geneve Keywords: Graphics capabilities Message-ID: <5507@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Date: 13 Jul 89 14:33:40 GMT References: <4752@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> <1643@csm9a.UUCP> <176@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <10655@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 51 To which Atari ST are you making these comparisons to? If it is to the earlier models, all this is outdated. The newer ST's have dedicated graphics chips, like the Amigas do. This is all good and fine about graphics, but what about processor speed? The 9995 runs at the SAME MHz as the 9900 in the old /4A. Just that the 9995 already had the dedicated 8 bit bus, and it took fewer cycles to execute the same instructions and it pre-fetches instructions. Also, it is not really a 12MHz machine. When you calculate instructions-per-second you use something like 4 MHz. The internal frequency is not the same as the external crystal. Also, when you buy a machine like the Atari or Amiga with their 68000's, you get much more memory addressable. The 9995 is 16 bit. It can address 64K. As I recall, the 68000 has a 20 or 24 bit bus so can access X megabytes (sorry, I don't have a calculator here). I don't wish to burst anyone's bubble here... but like when I see Myarc saying that "Well, if we up the crystal to 18MHz [or whatever] we'll be knocking on the door of the 80386 machines." (That's almost a direct quote from a recent Micropendium.) First, when that was written, they had never reached 18MHz. Also, the max rated crystal frequency is 12.1MHz, although things are always rated conseratively. But look at it this way, 18/12 = 1.5. If the Geneve is about the speed of a PC, an 18MHz Geneve won't even be near an AT (which is like 2-5 times a PC). I used to own a Geneve for 2 years. I really liked it. However, I got really sick of Myarc not pulling through. It wasn't their fault entirely. I'm glad to see it start to pull itself together...BUT, remember that when you buy a Geneve, you are buying 10 year old technology. And the software support seems to be like 20 years old. BJM [If you disagree, post it... this is a good discussion we have here... this boards picking up a little!] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bret J. Musser --- Carnegie-Mellon University | "If you can count your | money, you don't have Internet: bjm@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu | a billion dollars." Bitnet: bjm%f.gp.cs.cmu.edu@cmccvb | UUCP: | -- J. Paul Getty =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=