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Amiga Collections: Taifun
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Taifun 034 (1987-11-15)(Ossowski, Stefan)(DE)(PD).zip
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Taifun 034 (1987-11-15)(Ossowski, Stefan)(DE)(PD).adf
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TimeRam
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README
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1989-01-18
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73 lines
Documentation? Ok, here's some... I wish that someone would write a
program which will grade the quality of the ram boards that are being used.
In my beginning attempts at writing in the Lattice-C language and the Amiga
PC, I've programmed this test. The results may mean something but who
knows and I only can hope. I need some explanation on what I'm doing. I
need to find the access speeds of Fast and Chip ram. Really. How can a
pocket watch clock the speed of light? How? Use a computer? WORDS OF
CAUTION! The program sets the priority of the current task to 127,
Forbid()s, and Disable()s the machine during testing. DON'T REMOVE OR
INSERT DISKS DURING THE TEST! Afterwards, things SHOULD return to normal
again. The timings returned are how long it took for a 1K long ram copy
program to copy itself to another 1K area of memory. Inorder to get a more
accurate reading of the time, the copying is repeated 15,000 or so times
and reported in milliseconds from the V_BLANK timer. This timer is 116.7
milliseconds accurate. TimeRam has two self-copying routines; One routine
resides in ChipRam and the other resides in FastRam. Also, two 1K areas of
ram are allocated as targets; One target lives in ChipRam and the other in
FastRam. The program proceeds as follows:
1) ChipRam copier copies itself to ChipRam and is timed.
2) FastRam copier copies itself to FastRam and is timed.
3) ChipRam copier copies itself to FastRam and is timed.
4) FastRam copier copies itself to ChipRam and is timed.
None of this information tells much about the QUALITY of the ramboards out
there for sale; Unless, of course, we spread the word to others of our
ramboards and these figures. It may be of some use to programmers to
understand how to speed up their programs though. Who knows? I had fun
writing the program, anyway. Tell me about it. Bruce's repair and testing
(415) 525-6973 Berkeley, California, USA, Third Planet Ol' Sol, 94710-1706.
Special thanks to Bryce Nesbitt for getting me to do what I wouldn't have
done 'cause I didn't know how to do it and didn't know it existed anyway.
Ya Know? I didn't.
Here're the test results of an internal ramboard from a company with morals
not to sell, but honest enough to let me test and they improve. More power
to 'em.
----------------------------------
chipram to chipram 11.883 seconds
fastram to fastram 12.833 seconds
chipram to fastram 13.333 seconds
fastram to chipram 12.166 seconds
With HAM displayed on the monitor:
chipram to chipram 14.550 seconds
fastram to fastram 12.833 seconds
chipram to fastram 13.516 seconds
fastram to chipram 12.950 seconds
----------------------------------
TimeRam is absolutely free as long as you own an Amiga PC. If you don't
have an Amiga, you can treasure it anyway.
Bruce T.
You may also send test results to:
bryce@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU
ucbvax!cogsci!bryce
-or, if that does not work, try-
bryce@hoser.Berkeley.EDU
ucbvax!hoser!bryce
When test results are in for all the memory boards, the findings will
be summaried to comp.sys.amiga.