Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!crash!cacilj!paul
From: paul@cacilj.UUCP (Paul Close)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: 16MHz board -- fast CPU, slow memory?
Message-ID: <725@cacilj.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 88 18:56:05 GMT
Reply-To: paul@cacilj.UUCP (Paul Close)
Organization: CACI Products Company, La Jolla, CA
Lines: 15

My question concerning the "fast" board is this:  How much faster will
memory references be?  It seems to me that the memory on the ST right now
has around a 120ns access time, just about right for one memory reference
every 8MHz clock cycle.  So even if you run the CPU at 16MHz, the memory
STILL takes 120ns which now throws the processor into a wait state (or more?).
Net gains on memory accesses: 0.  (Is my logic correct?)

Question two:  would it be possible to replace the memory with faster chips
to eliminate or reduce the number of wait states?  Otherwise memory won't be
faster, I/O won't be faster -- what do you actually gain?
-- 
Paul Close	paul@cacilj.CTS.COM 	...!{uunet, ucsd, crash}!cacilj!paul

Shaw's Principle:
  Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.