From: peter@global.hacktic.nl (Peter Busser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: More on Local Bus - What about Unix?? S3 vs. (fwd) 
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 92 19:00:08 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: What organization???


In article <BsM9qv.IxK@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> Iskandar writes:

  >  Yeah I suspected it was the CPU.. from what I've heard Amiga 
  >  video is lightning quick when screen switching is done, but 
  >  using windows on Workbench is quite slow. 
I've worked with an Amiga for a longer period (a few months) using the old
1.3 system and I wasn't impressed by the speed.

  > |It sounds to me like the chunky-pixel approach is easier on the CPU
  > |for straight drawing operations.  Also Microsoft Windows' drawing code
  > |may be more efficient on the CPU than the Amiga's Intuition code,
  > |partly due to the lack of bitplane worries.
I think that OS/2 v1.3 places windows at byte boundaries which should simplify
things like scrolling and such considerably. Maybe they (= MS) do the same in
Windows.

  >  Thats mainly what turned me off from the Amiga in the
  >  beginning. Chunky pixels.
What turned me off from the Amiga is poor overal display quality: low refresh
rate, 4 colours (in the standard WB) and low resolution (640x200).

  > |I'm not going to get into the CPU debate, considering that I've now
  > |seen it argued both ways (an Intel advocate posted claiming that
  > |Intels were more efficient in clock counts for many operations than
  > |the Motorolas).
Maybe, but the glue-chips on a board are very important for good performance.
Comparing CPU's doesn't take those chips into account and is therefore
meaningless.

  > |Let's just say that even assuming the Motorola
  > |advocates were right, your higher clock speed probably nullifies any
  > |such advantage.
  >  Oh I agree. The Motorola designs are probably better but Intel
  >  and its competitors have manufacturing down better and can achieve
  >  higher speeds. 
For lower prices (mainly because there ARE competitors).

  > |So I am starting to wonder how much of this Amiga fast video 
  > |stuff is really hype, and whether Amiga users have really seen 
  > |a real 486 with a Tseng or S3 card perform.
Hmmm, but a A500 is cheaper than a 486 with a Tseng/S3 card...

  > |that having a dedicated graphics coprocessor is better than doing
  > |CPU-managed graphics. I agree with him.  But the graphics coprocessor
  > |(or Copper) plus blitter in the Amiga is hardly describeable as
  > |"advanced" by current standards.
Indeed, things like TMS34010/34020 and the i860 are general purpose CPU's
with special units to support graphics. Instead of only drawing lines or
filling polygons, these chips can do anything.

  > |forget it.  Those may be beyond most PC's at present, too, but they
  > |are what I think of when I hear "advanced".
  >  Ah... I was wondering what a Copper was  8-)  So if I buy an
  >  S3 or ATI Ultra card I have a copper in my PC!
Not exactly. The copper can change registers from other peripherals. By using
a so called copper-list one can make for instance pallette scrolling without
CPU intervention.

  >  My guess is that it won't be long before things like the 
  >  S3 chip find their way into the Amiga world. Until then I
  >  guess the PCs will be faster for a while.
Nope, forget it! The Amiga is a low-cost machine. Besides that, the most
popular software is the software that uses the special hardware well. Any
hardware incompatibility breaks that software imediately. I think CBM will
produce Amiga's which are almost exactly what they have been since 1985 until
the profits drop. After that hey will come out with something new, but still
for the same market as the C64 and the Amiga.

  > |This is just one of many reasons why I'm selling my A3000, and it's
  > |not the most important, either.  The Amiga should have a new chipset
  > |coming out relatively soon, but due to inherent design limitations,
  > |it will probably only get a 4x speedup, and that just won't be enough.
That depends on what you want. You know, you don't have to buy a new computer
just because someone else has a computer with more ..... <fill in your
favorite> than your computer.

Greetings,
Peter Busser
---
I don't do .sigs

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware