FAST TECH'S T-20! STR InfoFile ============================== THE GREAT T-20 from FAST TECHNOLOGY by Doyle Helms "But officer, I was only doing 20... Sonny, couldn't you see that the Chip is posted at 16?" The following will be short, sweet and to the point. I have attempted to capture some of the "real world" times (or benchmarks) for some of the most common programs. For safety sake, let me first list the results of some of the benchmarks programs available for those of you who hold great faith in them (grin). Quick Index 2.1 Auto programs: NONE Accessories: NONE Monochrome 8Mhz 20Mhz Function B.off B.on B.off B.on -------------------------------------------- CPU memory 100 100 197 197 CPU register 100 100 254 254 CPU divide 100 100 254 254 CPU shifts 100 100 259 259 TOS text 100 110 202 196 TOS string 100 106 189 187 TOS scroll 100 132 115 141 GEM dialog 100 133 195 239 -------------------------------------------- Now let's load the system down (or up) some. Auto programs: TurboMono 1.84, G+Plus, LGSelect, Hotwire 3.0, DCshowit, DCmshift, Codekeys Acc.'s: G+Plus (mini), Hotsaver, Multidesk, Codekeys Monochrome 8Mhz 20Mhz Function B.off B.on B.off B.on -------------------------------------------- CPU memory 91 91 189 189 CPU register 91 91 244 244 CPU divide 91 91 244 244 CPU shifts 91 91 248 248 TOS text 172 172 406 406 TOS string 1161 1168 2558 2558 TOS scroll 124 127 139 139 GEM dialog 232 245 448 473 -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Now for one more benchmark program from Jim Ness(NBM 0.7) | 8Mhz | 20 Mhz Function | B. off B. on | B. off B. on -------------------------------------------------------- Math test(cache) 16.55 18.07 7.51 7.86 Memory fetch/store 16.23 17.71 8.88 9.37 Dialog box draw 22.84 16.14 13.40 9.43 Floppy read/write 59.35 38.98 59.35 38.38 -------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now to the "Real World BenchMarks"(or what the mind perceives as real). I will be running the RWBM's with the system "loaded" as shown above in Quick Index 2.1 (BM #2). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Test 1: CALAMUS Calamus load and display a full page DOC file of 127K (390 frames): 8Mhz= 49.9 secs 20Mhz= 23.3 secs Change view and redraw from FULL page to ZOOM setting: 8Mhz= 7.8 20Mhz= 3.8 From ZOOM to FULL view: 8Mhz= 12.3 20Mhz= 6.4 Print file in Landscape Mode(180x180 Epson LQ510 24 pinner): 8Mhz= 4min 56 secs 20Mhz= 4min 15secs ----------------------------------------------------------------- TEST 2: PageStream 1.8 Load and display DOC file(306492bytes) 8Mhz= 12 secs 20Mhz= 6.3 Change view from NORMAL to FULL: 8Mhz= 6.14 20Mhz= 2.52 Change view from FULL to 200%: 8Mhz= 16.3 20Mhz= 6.3 Change from 200% to NORMAL: 8Mhz= 7.3 20Mhz= 3.1 Print file 180x180 dpi on Epson LQ-510 (24 pin) 8Mhz= 5min 35 secs 20Mhz= 3min 41secs ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now for a couple of the commonly used program among computerists. TEST 3: UNLZH172.PRG UnLZH of a file (1029532compressed/2196729uncomp.) Total files in LZH is 10 (219672 bytes average size) 8Mhz= 3min 31 secs 20Mhz= 1min 26 secs TEST 3b:LHarc 1.1319 (Quester) Move 10 files (219672 average size) into Archive. 8Mhz= 16minutes 20Mhz= 6min 47 secs(wow!) UnLZH (Extract) same file w/ Quester 1.1319 8Mhz= 4min 41 secs 20Mhz= 2minutes TEST 3c:ARC 6.02 Move same 10 files into archive using 6.02: 8Mhz= 13min 37 secs 20Mhz= 5min 43 secs (oh yea!) UnARC (Extract) same w/ 6.02 8Mhz= 5min 4 secs 20Mhz= 2min 13 secs TEST 3d:Dcopy 3.6 Move same 10 files into archive using Dcopy 3.6: 8Mhz= 6min 6 secs 20Mhz= 2min 41 secs UnARC (Extract) same w/Dcopy 3.6 8Mhz= 4min 3 secs 20Mhz= 1min 50 secs ----------------------------------------------------------------- Now for something completely different... These two tests will consist of using some of the functions (options) in Touch-Up and MVG. This will also include load times for compressed IMG files. TEST 4: TOUCH-UP & MVG Program load: TOUCH-UP 8Mhz= 7.7secs 20Mhz= 4.3secs MVG 8Mhz= 2.4 20Mhz= 1.9 Load IMG file: TOUCH-UP MVG Filename size sec(8Mhz) sec(20Mhz) sec(8Mhz) sec(20Mhz) 1.IMG 85658 59 24 5.2 2.5 2.IMG 54922 68 27 4.3 2.3 3.IMG 79614 58 23 4.6 2.5 4.IMG 109771 70 28 6.2 3.0 5.IMG 67487 64 25 4.4 2.4 6.IMG 19932 13 5.7 1.4 0.9 7.IMG 114377 69 28 6.2 3.2 8.IMG 45431 28 11 2.8 1.5 9.IMG 42818 31 13 2.8 1.5 10.IMG 41376 31 13 2.8 1.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 22avg. 49avg. 4.06avg. 2.13avg. TEST 4a: TOUCH-UP function times: 10.IMG file used for below tests. *Clean up(Both): 8Mhz= 22secs 20Mhz= 10.8secs *Bold(horz&vert): 8Mhz= 15.6secs 20Mhz= 7.9secs *Outline: 8Mhz= 25.9 20Mhz= 9.9 TEST 4b: MVG function times: 7.IMG file used for below tests. *Rotate 90: 8Mhz= 20.7secs 20Mhz= 8secs *Dither(option 1 Lighten & Darken): 8Mhz= 21.8secs 20Mhz= 8.5secs *Flip Horz: 8Mhz= 7.5secs 20Mhz= 3.4secs *Flip Vert: 8Mhz= 1.2secs 20Mhz= .9sec *Resize: (75%) 8Mhz= 23.2secs 20Mhz= 8.8secs (50%) 8Mhz= 12.7secs 20Mhz= 5.0secs (25%) 8Mhz= 5.1secs 20Mhz= 2.1secs *Shrink (Darkest & Lightest): 8Mhz= 14.8secs 20Mhz= 5.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------- TEST 5: Word Writer (Search for xxxyyyzzz & Replace with aaaaaaaa) Test file STR 720(xxxyyyzzz planted at end of file) STR 720 Load: 8Mhz= 28.1 20Mhz= 13.4 Search & replace: 8Mhz= 27.5 20Mhz= 14.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusion: After using this board for only a few days I have found it VERY dif- ficult to return to 8Mhz mode! The speed increase is EXTREMELY nice and the "wait states" are almost none existent! I cannot say enough good stuff about this high quality product, so I will just let the above stated numbers do the talking(they can be much more eloquent). Customer service at FaST Tech is above reproach. I had some slight trouble with MY Mega and not T-20 and Jim Allen helped me to rectify it when he was under NO obligation to do so! Thanx Jim!!! Hopefully the above information will help in your decision to purchase the new T-20(Turbo 20) accelerator board from: FaST Technology 14 Lovejoy Rd. Andover MA. 01810 (508) 475-3810). Any questions concerning the T-20 test results should be directed to me at D.HELMS(GEnie) or STARTWO (Delphi-The ST Advantage!) ________________________________________________________________ From Jim Allen (FAST Tech) about his new '030 boards - from the ST Roundtable on Genie... ...I will introduce the TinyTurbo030 and Turbo030 later this month... both have a 68000 to run old SW. It's doubtful that ANY up-grade will be usable inside the MSTE unless its guts are moved into another case. There is just no room, especially around the 68000 chip. ...the Turobo030...basically uses multiple mechanisms to achieve speed. It has a cache like the T20, only using 20ns rams instead of 100ns ones, and it also optionally has 4/16 Meg of 32bit ram. The ram is optional because the cache alone gives the system a healthy boost, and when the 32bit ram is installed the cache is there to speedup video accesses...ST or video card. The 32bit ram is real "page mode" in that we really use the page mode operation, a page is 128 longwords in length, so when the 030 is hanging around "on page" the rams run almost like static rams. We use 1Megx4 static column rams just like the Amiga3000, for maximum speed, and low power usage. It's a very sophisticated ram design with 030 burst cycles as quick as 325ns, which compares to 4000ns on a stock ST to move the same amount of data. The Turbo030 is 40Mhz, and we will only be making it at that speed. That's mighty quick, but the 030 price is still reasonable thanks to the MacIIfx and Apple's volume buying. The floating point performance of the Turbo030 is 78% the speed of the MacIIfx...a cache card later will even up the score. I am planning on a 32bit cache card for the T030 that also fits the TT, killing two birds with one stone. You will be amazed how much quicker a TT is with a cache card, the TT video memory is only twice as fast as the ST...same speed, twice as wide... the cache card will spiff it right up. Hope that wets your lips. I don't know what will be required to get Spectre to deal with the ram, the TURBO030 is an ST accelerator. As of September this year we will be able to provide 16Megs of 32bit ram, which is in addition to the 4Meg in your Mega....using only 8 static column drams...I'll have one 16Meg machine for Dusseldorf and WAACE show demos. The chips will be on sale in Sept. Only engineering samples are available now. Pricing will be introduced later in the month.... > FAST TECH ONLINE STR Feature DELPHI'S FAST TECH CONFERENCE ============================ Good evening, and welcome to DELPHI's ST Advantage. Tonight we're pleased to have Jim Allen, of Fast Technologies, as our guest for a Formal Conference. For those of you who don't about Jim, he is the creator of the T16 accelerator board, which makes your ST run at about twice the speed it used to before you installed the T16. And he is busy working on two newer, faster accelerators, the T20, an even faster version of the T16, and a 68030 board, that uses Motorola's 68030 chip to replace the stock 68000 chip. (There is a great deal more involved, but Jim can talk about that.) That said, is there anything you'd like to say first, Jim? FASTTECH> Sure, first I'd like to say it's nice to be on Delphi, I kept messing up appointments but finally got here!! Tonight, I'd like to answer questions about the TURBO20 and some about the TURBO030 that will be announced formally in a few days. The TURBO20 is our latest wonder, it is a 20Mhz 68000 accelerator, that uses a 16Mhz chip and a 20Mhz oscillator, and a number of neat tricks to get as much performance as possible out of the poor old 68000 chip ;-) It has been ported to the Amiga (ouch) and Mac, and will soon be THE premiere 68000 accelerator in the world. We've received some good news, that many of our European competitors have dropped out of the speedup business, so the T20 on the Atari has a bright future. An overview: The TURBO20 uses a static ram cache, a small high speed memory, plus the higher operating speed of a 20Mhz processor clock, to give your ST a boost to just over 2X performance in most typical real world uses. It has the ability to switch back to true 8Mhz to allow the use of older speed sensitive SW, and also has cache on/off, and video board caching on/off controls. Our STE adapter is planned to have the same autoswitching setup as the MegaSTE so that speed and cache on/off will be controlled by the new XCONTROL panel as if your STE was a MSTE. The videoboard caching on/off is used when a board like the Maxon MGE card, which has a coprocessor on it, is used. Caching is not allowed when "other" processors might be altering the data without the T20 knowing about it. The board is as long as the 68000, and about 3/4" wider. So it still fits everything, except the STacy is still a real pain... but doable. That's about it for features, we gave up on "fast rom" since the ROMS needed are just too expensive, and the speed increase isn't worth the cost. Take it away Gordie...! .Gordie> Okay, anyone have any questions? .Matt> Well, I was wondering if a T030 would fit in a STacy? .FASTTECH> Very doubtful to no ;-) But there will be a 520/1040 version of the T030 that will fit, it's about the size of a PCspeed. GA .Matt> When is it due out? .FASTTECH> Depending on how busy we are with the T030, by August. I'd like to show it at Dusseldorf, and ship by Sept. GA .Matt> ahh thanks. GA RMORROW> What kind of prices are you talking for a T030 or T20? I don't need a rocketship, just a dragster.. .FASTTECH> The TURBO20 is $329, the STE adapter is $49, and the TURBO030 is still in the air. .FASTTECH> The TURBO030 has two models, both 40Mhz units, with 68030 included. The low cost model has cache only, like the T20, but MUCH FASTER... it runs around 5X in speed improvement. It will retail for $849. The same board, with the ram circuit populated, has 4Megs or 16Megs of very, VERY fast static column ram (like the A3000) and will retail somewhere under $2000. So, it will be competitive with the "competition". It will also be quite a bit faster ;-) .Gordie> Can you grow the base model up to the high end model? .FASTTECH> The cache-only model can be upgraded... by FAST TECH... for the difference in price between the two units. The board is 5"x5" and is all surface mount design. It has seperate CPU & FPU clocks, the 50Mhz 68882 option is $300. The FPU operates at up to 75Mhz without any trouble!! The TURBO030 also has a 68000 chip onboard so you can run any and all ST Software when you want...just flip a switch ;-) .Dana> OK, Jim, business aside <>, now that the T16 is no longer available with a 520 w/ 2.5 megs, what would you recommend for the user who wants that occasionally needed extra speed running such things as DTP, etc., and if I upgraded to a MSTE, would I be able to port the accelerator to the new machine? FASTTECH> I'd buy a T20, Dana, and be very happy with it!! Occasional use is NOT what the TURBO030 is targeted at, the T20 makes much more sense, and will make your life much easier...newsletter-wise ;-) GA .Dana> hehe, would I be able to take the T20 out and move it to a MSTE? GA .FASTTECH> Yes Dana, you can move it to an STE, the MSTE is already accelerated, I'd sell the 520/T20 combo and get the MSTE when upgrade time came. GA .Dana> Thanks Jim. GA RMORROW> What's the difference between static ram and dynamic ram that you've been talking about? ga .FASTTECH> Dynamic ram is really only half the ram chip. The rest of the "chip" is made up of other ICs. By throwing out a lot of functions, you can pack many more bits in the chip. The downside is you need support circuits to keep things ticking. Also, simpler storage cell design saves space for even greater increases in how many bits the chip can hold. But refresh circuits that keep this simpler storage mechanism alive add to the over all complexity. Also, all this "off chip" stuff slows down the overall cycle time that a dynamic ram memory can have. Static rams use advanced storage techniques, and have everything required to be a ram onboard, so they're easier to use, faster, but much less dense. So you use Drams for large memory systems, and little SRAM caches to make those DRAMS look good ;-) At least that's the way the world works so far. GA RMORROW> Wow...Thanks. GA .Raven> I came in late, so I don't know if you covered this, but why would I want to buy a TURBO030 board as opposed to an SST? ga .FASTTECH> Simply because it's FASTER and has features that set it WAY apart. Some of this I won't talk about yet, but there are some very unique aspects to the T030. I wouldn't have done it if I thought there would be any question as to choice ;-) GA .Raven> Do you have benchmarks on both boards? How about cost difference? .FASTTECH> The benchmarks will be released in a week or so. I am licensing some software goodies for the roms that affect overall speed. Until that's settled, I don't want to go babbling numbers. .Raven> I look forward to the info. Could we get it put up online here? .FASTTECH> I can tell you the typical access time for ram is 75ns, with 275ns bursts where appropriate. The TT runs about 400ns bursts. Yes!! I will make sure it gets up here same day as GEnie... that's a promise. GA .Raven> Thank You. GA. .Dave> Jim, does the T20 come with a math coprocessor for us Spectre owners GA .FASTTECH> The 68000 chip uses the 68881/2 in a different manner than the 68030 chip does, so having one wouldn't help, unless you had software specifically written for it. Dynacadd is an example of an ST app that is written FOR IT. But you can get a JRI 25Mhz FPU board and add it to the T20... or buy it from me that way... and get an FPU. It won't help under Spectre though. That gets real complicated, SANE library stuff etc. GA .Dave> Thanks Jim. GA. .Schuylar> The speed you stated above for the TT? Was that with or without TTRAM, and will you be doing any boards for the TT? ga .FASTTECH> That's TTram... 400ns burst, the ST ram is 1 access (32bits) every 500ns time period just like the ST. Same as the ST, just 32bits wide ;-) I am waiting to see whether the TT will be pushed hard, if so I WILL do a combination TURBORAM/cache card for it. TURBORAM is what we call the ram on the TT030 and it has some unique aspects ;-) I believe Atari has done some good things to the TT very recently that will make it a much better product soon. GA .Schuylar> Thanks, ga .Gordie> When you mentioned the ability to change the speed and caching, is that software addressable, or is it a hardware thing? ga .FASTTECH> The T20 is set up for it to be HW only, the STE adapter will have the software control on it. The board just would have gotten too big otherwise. Most people will just use a HW switch to go between 20 and 8 at powerup. GA .Gordie> Is that STe adaptor shipping real soon now? Or did you actually get the info you needed? Finally. ga .FASTTECH> It is real soon now. I'm still waiting for the info. So I will just pull xcontrol apart and figure it out myself. I would have liked Atari to cough up the "standard" but that's a waste of time I guess. GA .Gordie> That's too bad. But... RMORROW> Are your products compatible with software accelerators like Quick ST? Is the effect additive? ga .FASTTECH> Yes!! In fact, TURBO20 is bundled with TURBOST, the super-duper SW accelerator. And a new version of TURBOST will be out this summer that is even better!!! The effect is definitely ADDITIVE. GA RMORROW> thanks ga FASTTECH> It's compatible with QuickST, but it comes with TST ;-) .Dave> How does PC Ditto run on the T20? GA. .FASTTECH> Good Question. The Floppy code is too speed sensitve, so I haven't been able to find out yet :-( I have someone working on a patch program to slow down the loops and make it stable again. GA .Dave> Thanks Jim, GA. JBEAU> I hate to be the one to ask blatant A or B questions, but I have been seriously looking at the ADSpeed from ICD... Would you care to mark the two side-by-side? .FASTTECH> B...that's my favorite. I don't like to cut into "other" products. I can simply say the T20 is faster, and we've been at this a lot longer. GA JBEAU> How about $ comparison? .FASTTECH> The T20 is $329, the Adspeed is around $249? I think, but mailorder can have a drastic affect on price. It's a case of $ for MPH ;-) JBEAU> Which do you think would be easier for a person like ME to install or are both meant for a dealer to do? .FASTTECH> It's a tie on the install. Both need the 68000 yanked, and that is NOT for the faint at heart. We sell through lots of dealers that have good techs for the install. GA JBEAU> I am, like Dana, a serious DTP worker... and the accelerator is guaranteed to work with big programs like CALAMUS with no :( ? .FASTTECH> It makes Calamus scream!!! It's only some games and really speed sensitive utility software... like floppy formatters... that can be adversely affected.... and Spectrum of course ;-) JBEAU> :) GA .Gordie> How about Pagestream? ga .FASTTECH> Pagestream, too... all the major apps have never had trouble with accelerators. GA .Raven> If we bought an accelerator from a mail order outfit that did not install, could we send it to you? How much, how long? .FASTTECH> I have done this rarely. It's not something we want to make a policy since it is very time consuming. We can refer you to any one of a dozen great dealers that will do fast turn around in the $50-75 range plus shipping. GA .Raven> Sounds good. GA .FASTTECH> STE installs WILL be user installations!!! Just plug it in!!! GA .Dave> So T20 STE installs are as easy as SIMM installs , how come? GA .FASTTECH> Not quite as easy, you need to take off one more shield, but the 68000 is in a SOCKET!!! Yeah!!! GA .Gordie> Really, Jim? My 68000 is socketed? Cool. .FASTTECH> So far ;-) .The Lone STacy> Well, back to the Stacy, the 520 T30, what is the difference between this one and the two you mentioned . GA .FASTTECH> The Tiny TURBO030 is a cache-only version that is very tiny, hence the name. This is our finest effort in minaturization, and even the ROMs with TOS 2.0X are little SMD chips! And the price will be around $599...don't hold me to it though ;-) .The Lone STacy> sounds...small :) What will be the speedup? .FASTTECH> Actually smaller than the PC Speed board. It has to be to fit all models. GA .The Lone STacy> Will it give say 3x my prsent speed? GA .FASTTECH> The worst case on the cache-only board is 3X... actually 60% in pure memory movement like QIndexs scroll test... but 5X in most real world stuff, like scrolling or redrawing in Calamus, etc. Surprisingly quick actually. GA .The Lone STacy> WOW! Could make a real handy portable. Thanks. GA .Gordie> Will the Tiny TURBO030 work with the STe's. ga .FASTTECH> That's the idea Gordie, to fit in all ST(e)s and work. As an example, load a 300K 7,000 line file into Tempus...already quite fast... an ST takes 22 secs to scroll to the end of the file, the cache-only T030s take only 4.5 secs!!! It's scary from such a small setup. .Gordie> Great. Another way to get a headache with my ST. RMORROW> Will owners of T16's be able to upgrade to T20's, like Atari Canada's 8-bit-for-ST deal? ga .FASTTECH> Yes, the current T16 owners get $89 off he T20 price, the offer is extended to Sept 30th... since there are few mags to get the word out in...and you get to keep the T16 ;-) Just send it back to be "marked" Only one upgrade per T16 ;-) There will be such a deal on the TURBO030 board also!! More $$ off of course ;-) GA RMORROW> thanks..ga .Dave> Jim, the Tiny Turbo is a cache-only board; does this mean the only diff between that and the T20 is the 030 and TOS 2.0X chips. Does it still use 32K of cache memory? The 030 speeds it up that much, wow!! GA. .FASTTECH> Yes Dave, the Tiny T030 adds the 030... still has a 68000!! And the TOS ROMs, and adds just $270...don't hold me to that ;-) .Dave> Thanks Jim, see you at Atari Day! GA. L_RYMAL> Hi Jim, I'm slightly confused. Is the Tiny T030 upgradeable on memory like the Turbo030? ga .FASTTECH> No, it has no DRAM memory, it just speeds up your ST using cache memory. The whole DRAM system uses far too much space to squeeze under the hood of a 1040 ;-) GA .Gordie> Okay, so you're saying you have 4 products. The Turbo20, the Tiny Turbo030, the naked Turbo030, and the full-dress Turbo030. Is that right? And the approximate prices are, $330 for the Turbo20, tentatively $600 for the Tiny Turbo030, $900 for the naked Turbo030, and under $2000 for the Full-dress Turbo030? .FASTTECH> That's about it. GA SCOTTJ> Jim, is it possible to add a 68040 to the ST or at least to a TT? .FASTTECH> It is possible. I have made arrangements with a Mac accelerator company to license their ASIC chip for the ST market. It would make an 040 daughter board for the T030 a much simpler job. But it will be an expensive proposition for a few more months. I would expect Atari themselves to be working on such a thing for the future. Let's hope! ;-) GA SCOTTJ> How much would it cost? Will we see it anytime soon? GA .FASTTECH> Chips like that don't cost a lot, the 040 costs ;-) I won't even start to worry about it until fall, but the T030 is definitely setup with that in mind for the future. GA SCOTTJ> What about a RISC Chip, like the 88k or Sparc? I've heard that there are 68000 emulators for them. GA .FASTTECH> Won't happen, software is the trouble. There is always Sun though ;-) Yes, an emulator would do the job, but the machines cost $$... $5K minimum. GA SCOTTJ> Thanks. Jim. .Gordie> Well, Jim, it's getting pretty late, so I'll try to wind this down. .FASTTECH> Okay by me. GA .Gordie> Would you say something about how you perceive the future of the ST/TT's here in North America? ga .FASTTECH> Not if my life depended on it ;-) .Gordie> hehehe. .FASTTECH> Actually, the ST is still a good value, it does the job... whatever the job is... and so as a purchase I'd recommend it. But if you can afford a Mac, it's mighty tempting ;-0 GA .Gordie> Yes, reality does intrude at times, doesn't it? .FASTTECH> Yep. .Gordie> Well, that about wraps it up. I'd like to thank Jim for joining us here on Delphi, and I'll see about getting him here on a more regular basis. If the rest of you don't mind, of course. .Matt> .Gordie> Any closing comments, Jim? .FASTTECH> Nope, just thanks a bunch for inviting me, I really enjoyed the visit. I'll try to make it by more often, and will put up the T030 intro when I do GEnie!! Bye folks!!! .Gordie> This CO is officially over. Again, thanks to JBEAU for doing most of the gruntwork in editing this transcript. His work saved me a couple of hours of staring into my Omnimon. My eyes appreciate it! --Gordie (aka BIBLINSKI) ************************************************************************* This conference transcript is the exclusive property of the ST Advantage on DELPHI. Permission to reprint is granted only if this notice is included with the transcript and left unchanged. ************************************************************************ > TURBO 20!! STR Spotlight "The Turbo 20 board is a VERY solid!" ======================== THE T-20 IS FOR EVERYBODY! ========================== by Doyle C. Helms I know in my "Real World BenchMarks" article a couple of weeks ago I said I would let the numbers do the talking for the the TURBO-20 (T-20) accelerator because they could be much more eloquent than I in describing the fine product from FaST Technology. Well to hell with eloquence, I've got to tell you some more about this excellent product I've used over the past several weeks! The Turbo 20 accelerator board is a VERY solid and dependable add-on from ANY ST/MEGA. I have used this unit for several weeks now and I have experienced NO difficulties with software crashes and etc. I now wish I had acquired a T-16 board when they first came out. I had read and heard from various sources way back then that the T-16 was an improvement, but was that increase worth the money? The comments I saw and heard was that unless you were a hardcore DTP'er or CAD user it really wasn't worth it. Well let me tell you friends, those people that said and wrote those comments are no longer on my list to buy anymore swampland in Florida from ! The T-20 is for everybody! Normal everyday use of the ST/Mega is GREATLY ENHANCED. The Desktop windows update so quickly that I have hit the update (Esc) key again to update the window because I didn't think it had done so when I first did an update keying when I changed disks. Using the ST/MEGA with T-20 installed is like it was going from the ol' 800 to the ST/MEGA as far as the perception of the speed increase! Granted that there is more to an ST than just the speed increase (e.g. Desktop, mouse and etc.) Speed of process is definitely a factor. Let me clarify at the juncture that not all programs are accelerated by this or any other 68000 accelerator. Games, most of all graphic games are not "speeded up" as in getting from point A to point B any faster. Take Falcon for example. I was a little ambivalent about flying Falcon at twice the speed and getting shot down twice as fast . Well, the speed increase with Falcon as with most games is not in overall speed increase but with smoother animation. These games and some other programs like WordWriter, rely on the system clock to carry out instructions. So even if you ran Falcon on a TT you would not get from home base to the target any faster. Applications such as WordWriter, the scrolling of the cursor with ar- row keys would not be 2 times the speed. This is because the programming is set up to control the speed of this operation. Check out Tempus if you want to see what releasing the cursor to full speed can look like! Paging in WordWriter, (clicking in the scroll bar) would show an increase though. Search and replace functions and such are greatly increased also. GFA Basic Editor shows almost no increase (it is already FAST!). The programs, either run from the editor or compiled, shows an appropriate increase in execution. The compiling of programs is also increased substantively. DESKTOP PUBLISHING AND GRAPHIC DESIGN PROGRAMS ---------------------------------------------- Calamus program loads from disk very quickly (the disk access is not speeded up, just the execution of the code after normal disk loading time). If you read my real world benchmarks in STReport 724 you will notice a decrease in time to load a LARGE CDK file and display it in 20Mhz mode vice the 8Mhz mode. 49 Secs to load and display in 8Mhz is not a LONG time you say. No it isn't for just a one time load. The "small" difference between the 8Mhz L&D(Load and Display) time and the L&D of the 20Mhz is 26 seconds. You save more time (26 seconds) in 20Mhz the it actually takes to L&D in 20Mhz vice 8Mhz. Confused? As started before, L&D in 8Mhz is 49 seconds, 20Mhz L&D time is 23 seconds. This comes to a savings of 26 seconds. The screen redraws when scrolling around a document is VERY fast com- pared to 8Mhz.Think about doing this and other L&D's over the course of many hours and you can begin to see the finger tapping factor is greatly reduced! The other functions in Calamus is GREATLY (close to twice in most cases) reduced. Again reference the ST Report 724 T-20 benchmarks. The same can be said for PageStream (1.8) in execution times of func- tions and L&D's. The bigger difference of speed increase between PageSTream and Calamus is the printout time. PageSTream print time is cut by a larger margin that the one in Calamus. Touch-Up is one of the programs that GREATLY benefits from the T-20. The MAJOR gripe I had with Touch-Up was the excessively slow load time of IMG files. The average L&D for a 66K IMG file is 49 seconds for 8Mhz and 22 seconds for 20Mhz mode. The T-20 was/is a godsend for Touch-Up users! MVG. Well this program is already a fireball when it comes to speed. The same 66K IMG file L&D time for MVG is 4 seconds for 8Mhz and 2 seconds for 20Mhz. The difference of L&D is still about half, but to the human- (and my sometimes sub-human) mind the difference of 2 seconds is almost imperceivable. Reference the function times in MVG. A 90 degree rotation time of 20 seconds in 8Mhz vice 8 seconds in 20Mhz. See even MVG can greatly benefit from T-20. Now for one of the driest and probably most often performed operations on the ST/Mega is archiving. Be it either ARC or LZH or whatever, this is a boring and time consuming operation. How many time have you gotten the LYNX out to play a game while the ST is doing some hardcore arcing? Ever go to put on a pot of coffee while your waiting? No more of that with T-20! Lets look at LZHing with Quester 1.1319 and the amount of time YOU will be saved from this tedious task. 10 files with an average size of 219672 are to be moved into an ar- chive. The 8Mhz time is 16 minutes. 20Mhz time is 6 minutes and 47 seconds!!! Savings of *TEN* (10, count 'em, 10) minutes! I could walk around the block in 10 minutes! To UNLZH these same files with Quester is 4 minutes at 8Mhz and 2minutes at 20Mhz. ARC 6.02 time for Moving the same files into an arc is 13 minutes and 37 seconds at 8Mhz and 5 minutes and 43 seconds at 20Mhz. A savings of 7.9 minutes! Well, so much for playing that LYNX game.(NOTE: Although the time for ARCing is faster than the LZHing, the compression ratio for LZH is much greater.) That about wraps it up for this installment. Next I will look at the benefits of T-20 with alternate Desktops, various disk utility programs and Databaseing. Until then, Speed on the computer dosen't kill, it saves large amounts of hair from being pulled... D.HELMS [GEnie] STARTWO [Delphi- The ST Advantage! Check it out...] P.S. I am in NO WAY associated with FaST Tech. I receive NO "perks", special attention or any other enumeration for these articles! I paid FULL price for my T-20 and have the canceled check to prove it! I am just a very satisfied user/customer that is willing to share some good news ver- sus writing a gripe letter when things are wrong and NEVER a good one when they are right. <<<<*>>>><<<<*>>>><<<<*>>>>