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1996-09-26
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129 lines
SpeedDemo
by N. Douglas and Clares Micro Supplies
This application is suitable for all ARM processors from ARM2 to ARM710 and
all RISC OS versions from 2.0 to 3.6.
WARNING: THIS DEMO IS LIMITED TO 30 MINUTES AND YOU CANNOT QUIT THE MEASURE
APPLICATION UNTIL THE TIME LIMIT IS UP. THIS WILL ALSO PRODUCE AN ERROR BOX
IF YOU ATTEMPT TO SHUT DOWN THE MACHINE WITH CTRL-SHIFT F12 WHILST THE DEMO
IS RUNNING. IF YOU THEN DO A RESTART THE MODULE IS CLEARED FROM MEMORY. NONE
OF THIS PREVENTS YOU FROM POWERING DOWN YOUR MACHINE AT ANY TIME.
What is SPEED! ?
================
It is a simple, but clever, utility that APPEARS to speed up your machine.
In fact what it is ACTUALLY doing is preventing applications from slowing
down your machine.
Why do applications slow down my machine ?
==========================================
The WIMP is constantly sending messages to applications. Some messages tell
the applications that something has happened eg a mouse button pressed.
Another message, Null poll, tells the applications that nothing is
happening, at which point the application can perform a task eg check the
MIDI port. The problem is that in order to tell the application about the
Null poll the memory manager has to page the application in as the current
task. It does this even if the application then totally ignores the Null
poll. The memory manager then pages out the application. This involves lots
of memory being moved around and it is this that slows down the machine.
Imagine that process if there are several applications responding to null
polls. The overheads become enormous and the whole machine slows down.
SPEED! overcomes these problems.
The Demo
========
SpeedDemo is designed to allow you to see what effect loading Speed! has on
your machine. When you double click on the !Speed! icon the following
happens.
1) A loader window appears telling you about the 30 second delay that is
there to cause annoyance and convince you to buy the full version.
2) The supplied Animation is run - 256 colour modes only. Please note this
intentionally uses a large WimpSlot in order to simulate having lots of
wimplslot used by other applications.
3) The Speed! module is loaded.
4) The Switch application is loaded. This is responding to null polls and so
slows down the computer and thus the animation. If you quit from it the
animation will speed up. We are not trying to fool you - we are just
simulating an application that uses Null polls being loaded.
5) The Timer is loaded and run. This gives you a value for your machine.
Try switching between Slow and Fast mode by clicking on the Switcher
application on the icon bar (the flames). On a RiscPC the effect will be
VERY noticeable both on the Measurer and the animation. You can also try
running Meteors from your Diversions directory and note the effect of
switching Speed! on and off.
On pre RiscPC machines you will notice more effect in screen modes that use
most memory, eg 28, although the overall effect will be in the range of 1.1
to 1.5 times the original speed.
You can re-run the Measure application at any time by clicking on the
Measure button. Do not press any keys or indeed move the mouse intentionally
while the hourglass is present as this will affect the readings.
Once the 'Measure' operation is complete, the results are shown and the
bar graph updated. The graph indicates how many times faster the machine is,
with each darker median being an increment of one. You may well find on
heavily loaded machines or machines with a lot of memory that the graph isn't
big enough as Speed! speeds up your computer by three times or more.
There is also an allowance for negative increases in speed. This
may happen in certain circumstances due to the Switcher and Measure
applications. In reality this is due to the fact that the computer is
lightly loaded and the timings will be so quick that any very small
variation can show a dramatic effect. We could have disallowed this but we
do not want to appear to be 'fiddling' the timings.
Another point is that the timer can only show average gains. There are many
instances where Speed! can provide an instantaneous speed increase of seven
times or so, and to fully appreciate Speed! you should really use the
machine with it installed for a while.
We suggest that you try it with things such as Impression when a large
document is loaded. Note how much smoother it appears especially when moving
embedded graphics. If you are using a Dynamic Area version of Publisher on a
RiscPC you will not see any speed up.
What will speed up ?
====================
As a general rule Speed! will have most effect on applications that are
polling ie if an application puts up an hourglass whilst it is working it is
probably not polling and so will not speed up.
The PC Card on the RiscPC speeds up when run in a window but not when single
tasking.
Ordering SPEED!
===============
SPEED! cost just ú10.00 including VAT and postage
If you would like to order SPEED! you can do so in the following ways:
Send Cheque, Credit or Debit card details to
Clares Micro Supplies
98 Middlewich Road
Northwich
Cheshire
CW9 7DA
Telephone your Credit or Debit card details to Clares at 01606 48511
Fax your Credit or Debit card details to Clares at 01606 48512
Email your Credit or Debit card details to sales@clares.demon.co.uk