HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: chrisg@cbmvax.commodore.com (Chris Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga Blitter 40% slower than Atari Blitter (???)
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:46:20 GMT
Reply-To: chrisg@cbmvax.commodore.com (Chris Green)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Oct16.044528.11185@imada.ou.dk> micro@imada.ou.dk (Klaus Pedersen) writes:
>chrisg@cbmvax.commodore.com (Chris Green) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Oct11.192443.23288@imada.ou.dk> micro@imada.ou.dk (Klaus Pedersen) writes:
>>>OK, why not try to see who can do the fastest horiz line routine? 
>>>Let's try to see who can write the fastest 4 plane Hline-fill with dither.
>
>
>>No claims to be the fastest, but this routine is at least adequate.
>>It is passed a list of y/leftx/rightx triplets. The macro is used to
>>generate code specifically for each color. It handles 16, 32, or 64
>>colors.
>
>How fast is it? 
>
	Pretty good for its intended purpose, rendering small polygons.
Also, I had to deal with reversal (left>right). A big flaw is that
it only does 16 bit accesses, but it could be changed trivially
to do 32 bit aligned accesses with no slowdown (changing the tables
would handle all of the alignment issues).

You can certainly do better, especially if you're more interested
in larger polys. But, it's important to remember the Fundamental
3D Graphics Equations:

	<50 large polygons=boring
	>500 tiny polygons=interesting.

>I am working on 2 other routines (none use the BLiTTER) the first one use
>the Falcon true-colour mode (1 word/pixel).
>Basically:
>	move.w length,D0
>	move.w colour,D1
>.loop:  move.w D1,(A0)+
>        dbra   D0,.loop	
>
>That is all! (not very fast though - 2Mpixels/sec, which means that the about
>test should execute in 2 secs).
>
	move.w	length,d0
	move.w	colour,d1
	swap	d1
	move.w	colour,d1
	lsr.w	#1,d0
	bcc.s	1$
	move.w	d0,(a0)+
1$:	lsr.w	#1,d0
	bcc.s	2$
	move.l	d0,(a0)+
2$:	dbra	d1,do_loop
	rts
do_loop:
	move.l	d0,(a0)+
	move.l	d0,(a0)+
	dbra	d1,do_loop
	rts

etc.


-- 
*-------------------------------------------*---------------------------*
|Chris Green - Graphics Software Engineer   - chrisg@commodore.COM      f
|                  Commodore-Amiga          - uunet!cbmvax!chrisg       n
|My opinions are my own, and do not         - icantforgettheimpression  o
|necessarily represent those of my employer.- youmadeyouleftaholeinthe  r
|"A screaming comes across the sky..."      - backofmyhead              d
*-------------------------------------------*---------------------------*
From: crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Painting your AMIGA or other computer?
Date: 15 Oct 92 22:41:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: glia.crystal.719188874
Organization: University of Washington


Oh, I forgot to mention the two tiny dolphins facing each other on my 
df0: and df1: drives.   (a bit of a pun there...like the mopuse on the mouse)

*grin*
Crystal
  ;>
From: Paula_Lieberman@amicol.UUCP (Paula Lieberman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A Commodore Engineer speaks out.
Distribution: world
Date: 12 Oct 92 19:45:47 EDT
Organization: Amiga Colony BBS

re article by Jerry Kuch:  I got -irritated- at the recent CD-ROM show in
Boston at the 
"Multimedia CD-ROM player" Sony was demo'ing -- what it was was what looked
like an overgrown BookMan, and what it did was interactive play back MS
Windows or OS/2 CD-ROMs.  -- not CD-I discs, not CDTV discs, not
Mac-formattred CD-ROMs, just ones for MS Windows or OS/2.  However, there
was emblazoned on it "MMCD" for Multimedia CD player..... I was -ticked-
off.  Sony, by the way, seems hooked with everyone BUT Commodore for
portable interactive CD players -- it's building a color one for CD-I, it
builds machines for Apple, there was an person from IBM sitting IN the Sony
booth by one fo the MMCDs.....


-- Via DLG Pro v0.992

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: 22black@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Martin E. Black)
Subject: Re: The A4000 little-review
Organization: Western Michigan Univ. Comp. Sci. Dept.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 02:23:13 GMT

addison@pollux.usc.edu (Richard Addison) writes:

>In <david.031p@ariane.cam.org> david@ariane.cam.org (David Lebel) writes:
>>   Games, demos, or anything that open non-standard (and even some program
>>that open standard) screens will be in 15khz (ie. ugly scanlines in 200, and
>>ugly interlaced display in 400).

>>   I'm keeping my A3000. In fact, when the OS will support DIG, every Amiga
>>will be able to plug in a card, and play with higher resolutions.

>But the very same games, demos, or anything that open non-standard screens
>that don't promote with AGA will probably not work with DIG.

>BTW, are there any games that use modes besides lo-res or hi-res NTSC or PAL?

Maxis's games, and Sim* games, but since you can either promote them or 
use a prog named ntscamigatoDoubleNTSC.  Which would clear nearly all problems.
And for the copper-list tricks, that is mostly demos, but psygnosis uses it
especially on recent stuff.  And since they have been informed of the does and
don'ts for the aga for quite a while i doubt it should be a problem.

>Problems will likely occur with games that do a lot of copper-list tricks,
>especially if they use different copper lists with even and odd scans.
>But, then again, most games don't use interlaced displays.

>-- 
>Richard

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Subject: Re: 68060...Coming Soon?
Originator: torrie@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Date: 10 Oct 92 23:26:29 GMT

jonathan@yoyodyne.WPI.EDU (Jonathan F. Zimmitti) writes:

>	I've been hearing rumors that Motorola will be announcing the 
>68060 on October 15.  Has anyone heard anything else?  Just thought I'd
>let everyone know.

  Motorola is appearing at the Microprocessor Forum to give a technology
description of the 68060.  They haven't even mentioned shipping anything
until the second half of 1993 (and if their 68040 debacle is
anything to go by, don't expect it until 1994).

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.
"...there is only one thing worse than having marketing people on a project,
 and that is having no marketing people on a project."  - Larry Tesler.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn)
Subject: Re: Its a sad sad day...
Organization: Qld Dept Primary Industries
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 14:25:41 GMT

In article <1992Oct14.042705.20619@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au> dconnors@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au (David Connors) writes:
>easton@zds-oem.zds.com (Jeff Easton) writes:
>
>>  Why would a 486sx make any difference?  The only thing its missing is
>>the math coprocessor.  Windows doesnt use it anyway.
>
>SX makes a *HELL* of a difference. An SX machine has a 16-bit data bus 
>with a 32-bit CPU. Sort of cuts bandwidth down as bit, as I'm sure you can 
>imagine.

Sorry Dave, but you're showing your ignorance.  Mind you, it's Intel's fault
for being inconsistent.  The 386SX is externally 16-bit, as you describe.
But, the 486SX is quite different - it's 32-bit all the way, and exactly the
same as a full 468 (DX), except for the fpu, as Jeff said.  For most software,
a 486SX is the same speed as a DX.

Watch out, though, for Cyrix's "486"-SLC.  How they get off calling this thing
a 486 is beyond me.  It's just a fast 386SX, complete with 16-bit data bus.  I
didn't realise until someone at work wanted to know if they should buy this
"486" system at an amazing low price, so I did some checking.  At least AMD
call their 386 clones "386"'s.  So it's easy to get confused out in X86 land.


-- 
David Meiklejohn (also known as davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au)
 - Regional support guy for PC's, Unix, and networks thereof.
 - But I'd rather be using an AMIGA!  Wouldn't you?
Find me in Mareeba, Australia (on the pointy bit in the northeast)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: u894776@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (James McCoull)
Subject: Re: Documentation for A(G)A?!? THE SOLUTION!!!
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 21:59:18 GMT

Karsten_Weiss@ibase.stgt.sub.org (Karsten Weiss) writes:

>1. Commodore  should release a new  Hardware Reference Manual!  (Don't
>   stop  reading  now!   ;-)  This will prevent the hardware cracks to

	Nah lets hope they don't.  Hopefully the post-AGA chipsets will
be out before there is a big enough market for the class of software which
must [yes I still believe that some software must hit the hardware registers
of the blitter & sprites directly] hit the hardware directly.  Lets be honest
AGA isnt exactly the future of Amiga - its more a Commodore thing than an Amiga
thing.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: A-MaxII+ ?
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
	<1992Oct14.060658.1848@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>
	<mike_steiner-141092164056@192.35.50.131>
	<1992Oct16.000132.15323@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 03:20:20 GMT

George> ==   <8800529@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU> 

 George> 	Now that's a point I don't get. Don't get me wrong but
 George> it sounds like an excuse that apple could think of. A bug that
 George> always exisated in our software but did not appear until the
 George> latest and most bug free version of our software !?!

The "disappearing files" bug existed in 6.0.x.  However, it only
appeared if you were running the Desktop Manager INIT instead of the
"normal" Desktop management routines.  (I know, it happened to me under
6.0.5 before 7.0 ever shipped.)

Now, 7.0[.x] includes the Desktop Manager as part of the system.  So on
a system that's had the catalog data structures damaged by the bug, it
will "suddenly" surface due to the change.  That doesn't mean the damage
wasn't already there, just that the system never noticed because it
wasn't using all the information that was there.

TuneUp 1.1[.1] prevents the damage from occurring.  (The reason they had
to go to 1.1.1 is that, in a hurry to get 1.1 out, they compiled it with
an out-of-date header file.)
--
Christopher K. Davis      |       NET.INSIGHTS INTO ARTISTIC CRITICISM:
<ckd@eff.org>   EFF #14   | ``[Y]ou don't cure bad art by locking it all up
System Administrator, EFF | in one museum, you cure it by throwing tomatoes
+1 617 864 0665  [CKD1]   | at bad artists.'' --Barry Shein <bzs@world.std.com>
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:15:10 EDT
From: <FAA102@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga in Encyclopedia ad on TV.

Just for the hell of it, does anyone know what program he si running in that co
mmercial?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: danaf@vccnw02.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.)
Subject: Re: Is it silly to buy an A3000 now?
Reply-To: danaf@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 03:52:06 GMT


Dave...

As much as I disagree with everything Marc Barret writes (weeeeel.. 99.9% of
the time...), I've got to say this:

Get a life!

God, your posts are the most obnoxious, drivelley, snot-nosed things I've ever
seen on the net! You act like the Pope of Usenet, passing judgement on all of
the lesser beings before you grind us beneath your feet.

I mean, jeez...

"continue to act in an obscene manner inside of a social circle"

"remove you from interacting with them"

"prophesy insomuch as history is the best prophet of the future"

<<fart>>


-- 
/////////////////////////[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
(718)             (212)                        (516)             (518)
=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     
--------My opinions rarely reflect those of any sane person,----------
	   living, dead, or undead... that's gonna CHANGE.
From: lockhart@cbmvax.commodore.com (John W. Lockhart - Product Assurance)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re:  Essence of flame
Date: 16 Oct 92 19:03:07 GMT
Reply-To: lockhart@cbmvax.commodore.com (John W. Lockhart - Product Assurance)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <w_3zg8k@rpi.edu> danaf@rpi.edu writes:
>In article <35902@cbmvax.commodore.com>, lockhart@cbmvax.commodore.com (John W. Lockhart - Product Assurance) writes:
>|> [repost of SpellBound]

>Well, now we know what Commodore people do with their free time... so, how's
>the A5000 coming, John???
>=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     

I think you know the standard response for stuff like that :-)  
And besides, Dave Haynie knows far better than I what sort of cool
hardware can be built; I just test the software. 

You certainly can't begrudge anyone a dose of rec.humor.funny,
especially after reading some of the drek posted to csaa. :-)
And rhf certainly has less traffic...and no need to use that
k|K key, either.

The only problem with rhf is that you can't read Dan Barrett's
humorous posts there.  Of course, Dan might fix that at some point :-)

  -- John

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Lockhart, lockhart@cbmvax.commodore.com; BIX: jlockhart
Product Assurance Group, Software Engineering, Commodore
Working for, but not speaking for, Commodore.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough)
Subject: Re: So what I'd really like to know is...
Organization: University of Toronto, Dept. of Statistics
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 05:17:48 GMT

In article <1992Oct15.033718.26277@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA> tmc@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Tim Ciceran) writes:

[ ]
>
>From all accounts, all new machines (with the exception of the A600) will be
>equipped with AGA chipsets. According to CBM Canada, two new platforms will
>be released before Christmas. If we can give the initial response to the
>Robinson article any merit, COMDEX would be a reasonable bet for release.

It does very little good to the Amiga line if its consumer line (A600 and
CDTV say) does not have a 256 colour mode. Having 50% of your market using
32 colour graphics simply means that most sofware will be written to that
with some obvious exceptions. The PC and Mac worlds are both moving to 8
bit colour at the low end. C= should as well. [VGA has 8 bit colour in
320x200 and the MacLCII has 8bit 640x480 colour on a 13" monitor]

Philip McDunnough
philip@utstat.toronto.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Subject: Re: A-MaxII+ ?
Originator: torrie@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Date: 13 Oct 92 18:14:09 GMT

root@rkamiga.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:

>In article <ibhan.718900395@husc8> ibhan@husc8.harvard.edu (Ishir Bhan) writes:
>>
>>Depends what you mean by support.  They still support it, they just don't
>>make it any more.  There's no real point to having QuickTime on a Classic,
>>since a classic doesn't have any color.

>I wasn't really considering QT, but I was wondering about all those people
>who fattened Apple's pockets by buying the Mac Classic in the last 2 years.

>That's a fairly short run for an established computer company.

>I would hate to be someone who bought a Classic 6 months ago and now finds
>that he has to throw it away and buy a Classic II.

  Why would they have to throw it away?  The next release of the
system software, System 7.1, will run on a Classic (in fact, even on
the 1986 Plus).  Presumably the software they bought to run on 
their Classic doesn't suddenly stop working when Apple releases a new
piece of hardware.


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.
"...there is only one thing worse than having marketing people on a project,
 and that is having no marketing people on a project."  - Larry Tesler.
From: caw@miroc.Chi.IL.US (Christopher A. Wichura)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: AGA hidden registers - C= is giving me an attitude
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (9/26/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Date: 10 Oct 92 08:22:58 CDT

In article <1992Oct06.072718.23663@rmece49.upr.clu.edu> s64453@rmece49.upr.clu.edu (hernandez machado ricardo) writes:
>
>    I agree that C= does this.  My concern comes, however, for a company
> like Psygnosis.  Excellent games, that have to by pass the OS.  What is
                                         ^^^^
> my suggestion?  Allow the OS to report the location of specific registers.

Have you seen the v39 docs?  Do you have one clue about what Commodore has
done to the graphics support in v39?  It is much, MUCH easier to write
Psygnosis class games under v39 without having to 'pass the OS'...

I'm sorry, but all this "must have the hardware registers" crap is bullshit.

-=> CAW

--

Christopher A. Wichura                Multitasking.  Just DO it.
caw@miroc.chi.il.us  (my amiga)                          ...the Amiga way...
u12401@uicvm.uic.edu (school account)
From: chrisg@cbmvax.commodore.com (Chris Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: fast polygon routines
Date: 12 Oct 92 19:06:34 GMT
Reply-To: chrisg@cbmvax.commodore.com (Chris Green)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Oct11.4477.30875@dosgate> "jonathan forbes" <jonathan.forbes@canrem.com> writes:
>The program does back-face culling, of course, and that alone requires a
>dot product (three mul's) for every polygon.  

	Two muls. You normalize the vectors so that one component is
always +/- 1.0. And of couse, you also special case all normals
that have one or more components zero, which saves some more muls.

-- 
*-------------------------------------------*---------------------------*
|Chris Green - Graphics Software Engineer   - chrisg@commodore.COM      f
|                  Commodore-Amiga          - uunet!cbmvax!chrisg       n
|My opinions are my own, and do not         - icantforgettheimpression  o
|necessarily represent those of my employer.- youmadeyouleftaholeinthe  r
|"A screaming comes across the sky..."      - backofmyhead              d
*-------------------------------------------*---------------------------*
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: u894776@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (James McCoull)
Subject: Re: Amiga Blitter 40% slower than Atari Blitter (???)
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 10:55:23 GMT

barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:

>   The biggest Amiga killer is Commodore.  With so little support for the
>machine in the U.S., with few improvements in marketing here, and with 
>Commodore's U.S. subsidiary losing more than $20 Million per year for the
>parent company, it is safe to say that the Amiga is dead here.

Marc maybe you can save Commodore then.  Offer them your services as a
marketing guru [you may have to buy them out to do this].  Imagine if for
everyone of your whinges - Commodore did something good.  Actually I would
go so far as to say... that if you have a vision for the amiga, but just sit
on your arse whining about Commodore instead of helping them out - then YOU
are the one killing the amiga.
From: david@ariane.cam.org (David Lebel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: REAL FALCON 030 SPECS
Date: 9 Oct 92 17:35:37 GMT
Organization: Ariane Development Group (aka. SilverBox Development Group)
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16e (7/4/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <u894776.718169098@bruny> u894776@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (James McCoull) writes:

>
> 	Yep, and it still doesnt fit in my 1000.
>

   Your the first to tell me this. I know many people using 2.0 on A1000.

-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                David Lebel      ///  Let me hear you                      |
|   Ariane Development Group     ///   Make decisions                       |
|       david@ariane.cam.org    ///    Without your television              |
|    lebeld@jsp.umontreal.ca \\X//     Let me hear you speaking just for me |
|  (514) 343-6532 ext. 44644  \X/               - Martin Gore, Depeche Mode |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: fheitkamp@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A4000 First Impressions
Date: 15 Oct 92 06:20:47 EST
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <1992Oct14.213557.7148@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, lindblad@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Jarkko Lindblad) writes:
> iank@microsoft.com (Ian Kennedy) writes:
> 
> : Many people have said that the 256 color Workbench is slightly slower
> : that an A3000 running a 16 color Workbench. Bull Pucky! What were they
> : smokin? This A4000 running a 640x480 256 color workbench was at least twice
> 
	Well I've noticed that the 256 color mode has a noticable 'repainting'
	effect, but not *nearly* as much as my 386DX with Orchid proIIs running
	Windows 3.1

> : 
> : /* IanK@Microsoft.com				*/
> : /* Waiting for what comes after the A4000! 	*/
> 
> And I always thought you meant a more hi-end machine than A4000, boy
> was I wrong :)
> 
> : /* In the meantime I think I'll pick up a  	*/
> : /* '486 box...					*/
> 
	In the latest Computer Shoppers there are 486DXs w/EISA/SCSI and
	SVGA monitor for ~2800k and usually with 300 meg hard drive.  I'm
	no PC fan but those prices are really getting low.  And it seems
	they've gotten lower just over the last month or so.

> Somehow your .sig does not agree with the rest of the message :)
> 
> --
> Jarkko Lindblad
> lindblad@cc.helsinki.fi
> -- 
> Jarkko Lindblad         | Those people who tell you not to
> lindblad@cc.helsinki.fi |   take chances
> ------------------------| they are all missing on what life is about
> This space if for sale  |                        - Metallica
Fred Heitkamp,  ** Not an organization.  My opinions only **
From: abs0@coos.dartmouth.edu (Kelvin Leung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Its a sad sad day...
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:52:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.1992Oct14.225205.13376
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

dconnors@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au (David Connors) writes:
[someone wrote]
>>  Why would a 486sx make any difference?  The only thing its missing is
>>the math coprocessor.  Windows doesnt use it anyway.

>SX makes a *HELL* of a difference. An SX machine has a 16-bit data bus 
>with a 32-bit CPU. Sort of cuts bandwidth down as bit, as I'm sure you can 
>imagine.

I think you got 486SX and 386SX confused.  A 386SX is a 386 with 16bit
external bus, where as a 486SX is a 486 with its FPU disabled.  They are
totally different beasts, hence should be viewed differently.  

What you said would best describe a 486SLC (??) by Cyrix--a 386sx pin
compatible chip which has some 486 functions built-in.

Yours Sincerely,
Kelvin
e-mail: abs0@coos.dartmouth.edu