Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pacbell!att!alberta!auvax!rwa
From: rwa@auvax.UUCP (Ross Alexander)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: 16MHz board -- fast CPU, slow memory?
Summary: 16 mhz _is_ a win
Message-ID: <641@auvax.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 88 16:25:25 GMT
References: <725@cacilj.UUCP>
Organization: Athabasca U., Alberta, Canada
Lines: 12


Paul Close wonders (use `p' to read parent article) if a 16 MHz cpu running
on the current ST motherboard would be an improvement.  My answer is Yes.
Of course I/O and memory accesses can't be improved due to the timing and
other restrictions of the design.  But many, many instructions of the MC68000
repetoire uses cycles for things other than memory access; for instance,
division and multiplication times are almost completely CPU-clock-speed
dependant rather than memory-speed dependant.  On the whole, one might not
(will not) get a two-to-one speed up, but for math-intensive applications
such as ray-tracing you will notice the improvement.

Ross Alexander, Athabasca University
alberta!auvax!rwa