Subject: Re: Amiga LW compiling
From: [email-masked] (Jeffery S. Jones)
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 12:57:45 -0700

On 18-Apr-96 07:18:22, DavHibsher <[email-masked]> wrote:
>On Wed, 17 Apr 96 [email-masked] (Dennis Grant) asks:

>> Are there currently shipped processor-specialized versions
>> of Amiga LW? ('020, '040 etc)?

>Not that I'm aware of. But I could easily be unaware of such a thing.
>Most of what I know about the compilers they use I learned from reading
>the LightWave plug-in mailing list.

  There are two versions of LW for the Amiga, both included.  There is a
Floating Point version, and a non-floating point version.  The FP
version is effectively optimized for an '040.  AFAIK, there is no
disadvantage to using '040 optimized code on a lower processor, as long
as you don't use anything that flat won't work.  The non-FP code is
optimized for an '020 or '030; again because using optimal order for
these processors won't harm lower level performance.  If you have an
FPU, it automatically using the FP version.

  The '060, however, works best with code optimized for its enhanced
throughput, and the compiler used for LW doesn't do this.  The speedup
would be 50-100% if optimized, but even without it, the '060 is faster
than a similar clock speed '040.

  Compilers with proper '060 support are in development, and I'd expect
that if a good one becomes available, NewTek will make use of it.

--
*-__________________________ | *Starfire* | _________________________-*
Jeff Jones  email:[email-masked]  *//* Amiga Lives! |Born
*TFG* *Starfire* Design Studio        *\\//* 1985-1994,    |again 1995!
--