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GEMBENCH.TXT
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1994-01-14
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GEM Bench V3.40
© Ofir Gal 1993 - 1994
=============================================================================
This program may not be included on magazine cover disks or CDROM
compilations without permission.
=============================================================================
=============================================================================
Thnaks to everyone who has registered GEMBench. The registration
fee is still 5 UK Pounds and helps me find the time to continue
development.
=============================================================================
=============================================================================
List of files:
GEMBENCH.PRG - program file
GEMBENCH.RSC - resources
GEMBENCH.TXT - this text file
AUTOFPU.RUN - Auto detecting float test executable
IEEE.RUN - 68000 only float test executable
GEMBENCH.IMG - an image file of GEMBench
HGT.TXT - Documentation of HiSoft GEM Toolbox interface
ICON.RSC - monochrome icon for NewDesk, TeraDesk, etc.
SLOWFAST.TOS - utility to change program flags for fastram
Registered versions also have an additional file called
GEMBENCH.REG. Under no circumstances should you give away a copy
of this file.
=============================================================================
Planned features:
* User sets: the user will be able to create further references
for additional setups. The number of user sets will probably
be limited to 20 (so they fit into a non-scrolling popup
menu). The user sets will be availbe from a popup menu and
each set may be given a name. It will be possible for example
to add a reference to an ST with a T28 board running under
Mag!x with NVDI to the existing presets.
This feature will only be available to registered users.
* I am currently looking at the issue of TTs again. There seem
to be far too many variations between TTs, mainly in memory
access times.
* The authors of Mag!x have expressed some concern regarding the
way GEMBench behaves under a multi-tasking system. I am also
investigating this.
* I am hoping to add a SpeedoGDOS test. This is not as simple as
it may seem and may not be included as soon as I hope. The
main problem with adding new tests is getting test results for
all the possible system references.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Features and bug fixes in V3.40
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* There's a new test for new style dialog boxes. This test
displays a more modern looking dialogue box which is becoming
popular. The routine uses progdefs and BASIC code to draw
custom objects using the VDI.
* There are three radio buttons in the reference box. Use these
to check your system against various colour modes. It is
interesting to see how the Falcon and TT are slowed down in
hi-res colour modes. The buttons change according to the
model.
* I had to remove the All Tests button because of space
restriction at standard ST resolutions. The Return key however
still works as before and performs all tests. Control+<A> has
the same effect. You may also use the menu or toolbar to start
the tests.
* The file GEMBENCH.IMG is now included in the distribution. It
shows the main window with the menu and toolbar.
* GEMBench now uses a toolbar which is user controlled. The
toolbar has the same function as the menu, but gives a quick,
one-click access to all functions.
The tools are (from left to right):
Save, Print, Display tests, CPU tests, All tests, System Info,
MiNT Priority, Blitter, and User Preferences. The last tool on
the right is the Exit icon.
* User Options:
You now have some control over the GEMBench interface. There
are five options currently. The dialog box to set these is
available from the window menu or from the toolbar.
Display Menubar
Determines whether the window menu bar is displayed. The
keyboard shortcuts are active regardless.
Display Toolbar
This determines whether the toolbar is displayed.
Frame Headlines
This puts small frames around the titles of the boxes.
Right Button Drive
Under GEM, the user may click and select objects in background
windows by holding down the right mouse button and clicking
with the left.
If you have this option selected then the right mouse button
can be used in background windows. This option means that you
no longer have to hold the button down, just use the right
button on all windows.
Zoom boxes
Enables/disables the growing and shrinking boxes when opening
and closing windows and dialog boxes.
The dialog has the standard Save, OK and Cancel buttons. Save
is only available to registered users.
* The time delay for unregistered users has been reduced.
* Iconify bug fixed (requires AES 4.10)
* Print and Save went slightly wrong in v3.30, should be OK now.
* New About window featuring Doug's stopwatch. You can open the
About window with a new shortcut - Shift+<A>. Try it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Features and bug fixes in V3.30
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* GEMBench got a face lift. The new design is based on v2 of the
HiSoft BASIC GEM Toolbox, featuring check buttons, a menu bar
inside the GEMBench main window and keyboard shortcuts for the
popup menus.
The Hardware Reference popup menus now have keyboard
shortcuts, F1 to F6 for computer type and Shift+F1 to Shift+F6
for the PC based GEMulator.
The window menu doubles most of the main menu bar but also
includes the registration dialog. The menu bar now replaces
the buttons that used to be located on the right side of the
window.
To find out more about the HGT user interface read the file
HGT.TXT.
File
Save - Saves the test results. It opens a window where you
can enter extra details about the tests.
Print - Same as Save, but prints the test results instead.
Test
This is the same as the main menu bar.
Options
System Info - Displays some information about the hardware
and software configuration.
MiNT Priority - If running under MiNT, this lets you
adjust the process priority of GEMBench.
Blitter - If your computer is Blitter equiped you may use
this to toggle the state of the Blitter chip.
Registration - This opens a dialog where you can register
GEMBench. See REGISTER.TXT for more info.
* GEMBench now works in TrueColour on the Falcon. It should also
work on the Nova TC card and Crazy Dots TC.
* A new registration scheme is now in effect. See REGISTER.TXT
for details.
* GEMBench does not crash anymore when trying to save to a
write-protected disk.
* There is no exit button for the main window. You can still
close it using the Closer gadget or by pressing Undo.
=============================================================================
USER MANUAL
=============================================================================
Introduction
------------
This program is Shareware, if you like it and use it you are required
to pay for it. Please send £5 to the address below. If you enclose a
blank disk and an SAE I will send you a registered up to date version
of GEM Bench. I will accept foreign currency from North America
and Germany which I can use to register shareware overseas. US -
$10. Germany - 15DM.
About the program:
I wrote the program because I was never sure what other benchmark
programs were exactly testing. Most benchmarks for the ST come with
screen accelerators like NVDI and Quick ST, while the results are not
tweaked I felt that an independent benchmark was needed. The NVDI
benchmark GEM_TEST tests the VDI text routines by displaying various
font sizes and effects as well as a 20 point font. This is something
NVDI is very good at (large fonts) but not necessarily used much.
Warp9 and Turbo ST are not that good at large fonts and do not give a
high score at the text test. Quick Index is another benchmark that
almost totally ignores GEM, most tests are BIOS and GEMDOS related. It
tends to produce very good results with Quick ST and Turbo ST which do
not represent reality in my opinion.
I am sure GEM Bench is not perfect either, but I wrote it without any
particular bias, I truly wanted to see how effective the blitter chip
was and which screen accelerator was the fastest. I also wanted to see
how much faster the Falcon really is and how it compares with a TT.
The subject was discussed on CIX and I took the advice of users and
programmers while writing the program so hopefully we now have a
definitive test for the Atari range of computers. I am open to
suggestions so please write to me if you have any. I would also like
to hear of any problems you may have running GEMBench.
Ofir Gal
3 Downs Road
Beckenham
Kent
BR3 2JY
United Kingdom
I can also be contacted via email - ogal@cix.compulink.co.uk
=============================================================================
User Manual
-----------
GEM Bench runs in any resolution with at least 640*200 pixels. This
includes ST high, ST medium, TT high, TT medium, TT low. All Falcon
modes are also supported except ST low and True Colour unless you
use ScreenBlaster or BlowUp030.
The following text documents the facilities provided by the
program. Please read the file HGT.TXT for more info about the
user interface. GEMBench has many tricks up its sleeve...
The Main Window
---------------
The main window shows the test results on the left, these will
initially be all zero, and the various options on the right. To
start the tests press the Return key.
When the tests are completed the results will be displayed in the
format:
Test time took in seconds ratio
If you run the test on a basic machine you should get 100%, this
means your ST/TT/Falcon is running in its normal, terribly slow
state. In addition you can run a single test by clicking on its
name or the keyboard shortcut.
On the bottom right you will see the hardware reference box. Here
you can choose which system you are comparing your setup to.
There is a wide choice ranging from an ST without a blitter to a
Falcon with an FPU and Blitter or a TT running at 16 colours.
Almost every possible combination is available.
The first button invokes a popup menu where you choose the base
machine. Below it are two buttons for BliTTer, FastRAM or FPU.
WHich is actually available and active depends on the base
machine.
The second button is normally the Blitter button but on a TT it
changes to FastRAM. This does NOT change the blitter state, it lets
you compare your system with an ST with or without a blitter.
The third button lets you compare your setup to a system with a
Floating Point Unit (FPU) if enabled. All TTs have an FPU so if you
select a TT this button will be selected for you as all TTs have an
FPU installed.
To compare your system to a MegaSTE with a Blitter and FPU for
example, first select the MSTE from the popup menu, then select the
Blitter and FPU buttons.
Below these are the screen mode buttons. Depending on the machine
you may compare your system to an STE at medium res, for example,
or to a Falcon running at 256 colours.
* Note that the old Mega ST is considered an ST.
* All refernces are to the very latest TOS version for each model.
ST - v1.04, STE - v1.62, MegaSTE - v2.06, TT - v3.06, Falcon -
v4.04.
* Falcon references are based on a VGA monitor running at the
standard resolutions available from the desktop.
* The program SLOWFAST.TOS is provided for TT users. Use it to
change the program flags. There are two options, FastRAM or ST
RAM. If you want to run GEM Bench in FastRAM simply type Y at
the prompt. Any other key will set it to run in ST RAM.
Save and Print
These menu items can be used to print or save the test results to
disk. A small box will appear where you can type in details of the
test. The program will automatically enter the machine type, blitter
state and TOS version as well as screen resolution and other system
info.
System Info
The System Info menu item displays a dialog with system
information and also tells you which machine configuration you
are comparing your system to.
Blitter
You can use this to switch the blitter on and off, you will be
surprised to see the difference it makes, especially on 8MHz STs
and STEs. If your ST has no blitter this item will be disabled.
On the Falcon it is not possible to switch the blitter off so the
button will always be selected. If you have NVDI on the Falcon
you can use this button to toggle the blitter state, otherwise it
has no effect.
MiNT Priority
The Priority button only has effect when running under MultiTOS
and lets you adjust the priority level MultiTOS allocates to GEM
Bench. Positive values increase priority and negative numbers
decrease it. The value range is -20 to +20. This sets ABSOLUTE
priority level as opposed to delta (relative) values.
Statistics
The statistics box is for a quick evaluation, the Display entry is
simply an average of all graphics tests. The CPU entry is a simple
average of the other tests.
The bottom result is an UNWEIGHTED average of all tests. It is
important to note that these results do not necessarily reflect
reality. It is much better to look at the specific tests and see which
ones matter to you. For example you may get an excellent result with
the VDI graphics test which will affect the statistics. If all you use
your computer for is plain text this result is not relevant to you.
Instead, you should look at tests like VDI text and scrolling.
The Menu Bars
-------------
GEMBench uses two menu bars, one at the top of the screen and
another inside the main test window. The menu bars are almost
identical and which one is used is entirely up to you. The window
menu bar is more convinient under a multi-tasking environment.
Desk
About - This displays some info about GEM Bench.
File
Open (Control+O) - Opens the main window.
Save (Control+S) - Save test results.
Print (Control+P) - Print test results.
Quit (Control+Q) - Quit GEM Bench.
Test
You can use these menu items to quickly test several functions in one
go. These items are active whether the main window is open or not.
Display (Control+D) - Run all display oriented tests. This
includes all text, graphics, dialog and window tests.
CPU (Control+C) - Run all CPU related tests - Integer division,
Floating point math and memory access.
All Tests (Control+A) - Run all tests.
Technical Info
--------------
This is a list of all the tests and how they are perfomed as well as
information for the non-programmer.
Dialogue Box - A complex dialogue box is drawn to screen. All
form_dial calls are used except FMD_FINISH which is only used to clear
the 'mess' at the end.
VDI Text - This is the standard v_gtext call which is used by most
programs to display text on screen.
Text Effects - This test displays text using v_gtext while changing
text attributes using vst_effects and text colour with vst_color.
Small Text - This test displays the small system font. The size is
changed using vst_point, the text is displayed using v_gtext.
VDI Graphics - The test draws a rectangle and circle in replace mode,
changing their position, fill pattern and colour before each draw.
This is followed by v_pline in xor mode. The VDI primitives used are
v_bar and v_ellipse and attributes changed are vsf_color and
vsf_interior.
GEM Window - This test creates a window then displays it. Uses the AES
calls wind_create and wind_open and opens a window 640*400 or 640*200
pixels according to resolution. The window is then closed. This allows
to compare an ST to a TT without having the TT open a larger window if
a large monitor is used.
Integer Division - Simply divides integers. Something every program
does at some point.
Float Math - Multiplies, divides and adds single and double precision
numbers. Also calculates trigonometric functions and logarithms. Uses
an FPU if one is installed.
RAM and ROM access - Simply reads from RAM and ROM. Useful to show
the benefits of FastRAM. ROM location is obtained via the BIOS so if
you have TOS installed in RAM, the ROM test will be reading from RAM
possibly affecting the speed.
Blitting - The test draws a black box on screen then moves it along by
saving the screen area to memory then writing it back with a slight
offset.
VDI Scroll - Uses the standard vro_cpyfm to scroll text in a window.
This function is used by most text editors and word processors.
Justified Text - Uses v_justified while constantly changing
justification parameters.
VDI Enquire - This runs through various system enquiries, again most
GEM programs use these calls.
New Dialogs - This test displays a buffered modern style flying
dialogue box.
============================================================================
Thanks to Graeme Rutt, Douglas Hilliard (for that cute stopwatch
icon), Roger Davies, Eric Northwood, Joe Connor, John Eason, Iain
Laskey, Andrew J Lee, Don Maple, Alistair Bodin, Mark Webster,
Andre Willey, Gunter Minnerup, Charles Smeton, everyone at
HiSoft, John Cordes, Kevin Fason, Daron Brewood, Darek Mihocka,
Karl Brandt, Chris Goodwin, Gordon Drayson, Gair Shields, Darryl
Piper and everyone else on CIX for their help.
Sorry if I forgot somebody, this list is long...
Ofir