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From: bson@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu (Jan Brittenson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP28S FAST PROGRAM
Message-ID: <11944@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 18 Nov 90 22:40:49 GMT
References: <16968@hydra.gatech.EDU> <4321@ruuinf.cs.ruu.nl> <1990Nov18.061220.14564@cc.ic.ac.uk>
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In article <1990Nov18.061220.14564@cc.ic.ac.uk> 
   umapd51@cc.ic.ac.uk (W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz) writes:

 > The HP 48SX already runs at the speed provided by FAST - BUT the HP
 > SX CPU spends a significant portion of its time checking and
 > updating the display, even during a running program.

   When does this happen? If you're refering to the top two lines of
annunciators, then this is incorrect since they are not updated during
execution. It's my impression that the 48 is slower mainly because it
has more data types, as well as allowing types to be used in
additional combinations, both of which factor up to more elaborate
type dispatching.  Also, the dispatch code is often sloppily done; in
general type combinations more commonly used should be dispatched
before less frequently used combinations. This is generally, but not
always, the case.