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From: mlelstv@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Michael van Elst )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re^2: Warning: New User Question
Message-ID: <261@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Date: 17 May 89 13:54:03 GMT
References: <1082@altos86.UUCP> <10650@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Organization: IMMD IV, University of Erlangen, W-Germany
Lines: 23

bob@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (robert s. richardson) writes:

>...  Is it conceivable to utilize the
>blitter as a math coprocessor with the proper code?  Or is the
>68000 faster in such areas?  I know some simple binary operations
>could probably be implemented, but what about floating point?

I checked some simple (fixpoint) operations:
In fact, the blitter may ADD and MULTIPLY faster than an 68000
if you choose a different number representation to avoid multiple
carry operations AND use large vectors (about >500 numbers).
BUT it's slower than an 68020 running at higher speeds !!

But there are some operations not intended for graphics, that can
make use of the blitter:
-- There is a Game-of-Life program that produces about 10 generations
   per second on a 640x200 frame.
-- A friend of mine rewrote the Lee-Algorithm (used for PCB routing) to
   work on the blitter. It's 14 times faster than a commercial router
   program.
				Michael van Elst

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