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From: vandevek@fergvax.unl.edu (James M. VandeVegt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Norton S.I. 3.1 is cheating!
Message-ID: <1991Feb09.225208.5806@hoss.unl.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 91 22:52:08 GMT
References: <1991Feb1.054859.7614@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Sender: news@hoss.unl.edu (Network News Administer)
Organization: Comp Sci and Engr, Univ. of Nebr.
Lines: 38

In article <1991Feb1.054859.7614@d.cs.okstate.edu> ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) writes:
>To make sure that the oscillators (32MHz, 35MHz, and 40MHz for
>16MHz, 17.5MHz, and 20MHz operations respectively) are all working
>properly, I wrote a SPEED program in assembler.  This is the
>readings I am getting:
>
>Operation     Oscillator       Norton S.I. 3.1           SPEED
>=========     ==========       ===============           =====
>  8.0MHz                            7.1                    7.1 
> 16.0MHz         32MHz             15.3                   14.6
> 17.5MHz         35MHz             15.3                   15.7
>
>Notice that at 16MHz and 17.5MHz, both Norton S.I. 3.1 returned
>15.3 whereas my SPEED program returned the correct proportional
>increase from 14.6 to 15.7.  I suspect that Norton has a 
>table built-in.  Parameters of the table include type of
>machine (e.g. 286, 386DX, 386SX, etc), standard 
>cpu speed (e.g. 8MHz, 10MHz, 12MHz, 16MHz, 20MHz, etc).
>The program found that 17.5MHz is closer to 16MHz than 
>20MHz, so it returned the 16MHz number.  Anybody has
>any idea?  (my SPEED program uses LOOP command to delay against
>the clock retrieve from INT 1ah).
>E. Teng Ong (ong@d.cs.okstate.edu) 

While I can not explain the nature of your readings, I use Norton
4.5's SI.  In raw mode, my machine gives 26.6-27.1 Computing Index,
I figure depending upon what "mood" :-) the computer is in.  Under
Windows 3.0 I have experimented with going to the dos shell and
running SI, getting all sorts of readings depending upon what
I had running and what "mood" Windows was in.  I think it does
an accurate check on computing power.  The disk index also gives
a good indication of how good a HD cache is running.  Windows 
Smartdrive jumps mine from 3.6 to 9.5.

| James M. VandeVegt             |  University of Nebraska           |
| vandevek@fergvax.unl.edu       |  Computer Science and Engineering |
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|                  Insert standard disclaimer here.                  |