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From: sjl@amdahl.UUCP (Steve Langdon)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Processing Speed?
Message-ID: <2675@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-Jan-86 16:10:34 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2675
Posted: Fri Jan 31 16:10:34 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 20:51:50 EST
References: <106@eyelab.UUCP>
Reply-To: sjl@amdahl.UUCP (Steve Langdon)
Organization: Amdahl Corp, Advanced Systems Planning
Lines: 35
Summary: Floating point hardware is available for the Mac

In article <106@eyelab.UUCP> ths@eyelab.UUCP (Tom Speeter) writes:

> 
>     One of the assumptions I made before purchasing the Mac
> was that the 68000 could whiz through numerical calculations
> and impress my friends with its speed.

Then he quotes figures showing that the Mac ran some floating point
programs 50 times slower than a PDP 11/44.

One answer is Mac C from Consulair customized for the Quesse Maccelerator.
The Maccelerator is an add on board based on a National 32081 Floating
point chip running at 10 Mhz.  It uses the clip style connector so no
surgery to the Mac is required (an installation kit is included with the
board).  The customized version of Mac C generates all the necessary code
to interface with the Maccelerator (replacing the normal calls to SANE).

The Mac C/Maccelerator package is $995. The board plus a function library
and some assembler macros can be purchased without the compiler for $665.
A couple of performance comparisons are:

	70K Whetsones (5K for SANE)
	1024 point DP complex FFT 5.6 seconds (88 seconds using SANE)

Consulair can be reached at (415)851-3272
Quesse Computer Company reached at (206)392-7701

I have no connection with either company other than being a satisfied
customer of Consulair (who also have versions of Mac C that use the
floating point on the Hyperdrive 2000 and the Levco 68020/68881 boards).
-- 
Stephen J. Langdon                  ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!sjl

[ The article above is not an official statement from any organization
  in the known universe. ]