swarm

Acorn A3020 with a PC HW Emulator

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It was common for many computer platforms to have a complete IBM PC compatible on a card in the 80s and early 90s. Software PC emulators were also a choice but their performance was usually very low. Having a card with a x86 CPU could solve the issue.

Acorn PC Card equipped with Cyrix 486SLC (25MHz) is almost as fast as Intel 486SX for certain tasks (main difference is in cache size: 1kB instead of 8kB) and the card allows you to get all the CPU performance. However if you expect full PC replacement, you would be very disappointed. The main limitation is in graphics performance. The card is usable only with text-mode programs and static graphics. Although VGA modes are emulated, even simple CGA games (like Alley Cat) are unplayable due to slow screen refresh. Good to mention that refresh speeds are somehow worse when PC Card output is changed from full-screen to windowed display.

I believe that it was better and probably not more expensive to buy a cheap PC clone instead of this card.

Sieve Benchmark and Windows CE Handhelds

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What started as a simple program to compare performance between PC and Amiga accelerators is now a project with single source code that can be compiled on many computer platforms: DOS (Borland 16bit, Metaware 32bit), Linux/gcc (x86+asm, x86-64+asm, ARM+asm), IRIX (MIPS), Mac/gcc/codewarrior (68k, PPC classic, PPC carbon, PPC/x86 OS X native), Amiga (68k up to 68040; StormC/gcc) and now even Windows CE (SH3, MIPS, ARM).

For me, this is an entertaining way to understand several OS platforms and their popular development environments. This is mostly about C/C++ compilers but we’ve made one BASIC (MS QuickBasic 4.5) and few assembly implementations to see efficiency of compiled code.

… back to Windows CE handhelds: I used several during my studies (Jornada 680, 690, 720, 728) for taking notes (as a replacement for Psion 5MX). Those with Hitachi SH-3 were unbelievably slow and you could see how GUI was drawn item by item. Later, I switched to ARM-based ones and everything was super-fast.  Now I see – low-power Intel StrongARM on 206MHz is more efficient (integer performance) than Pentium MMX with the same clock if data can fit in its 8K cache. For larger data sets it is still as fast as my 133-MHz Pentium MMX laptop. Nice results for something that small.

Web page with results (70+) from all machines is under construction.

Atari 2600 and Solaris

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It is incredible what is possible to run on a device with only 128 bytes of RAM. Solaris is probably the game that can get the most from Atari 2600. It has VSync-smooth “3D” graphics and the cartridge contains nothing but a ROM chip with the game.

Pocket Computing

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HP 200lx (1994) and Poqet PC (1989) are x86/XT compatibles with DOS in ROM. Poqet PC is more like a standard PC and has a better keyboard. On the other side HP is loaded with full-featured productivity programs (PIM, Lotus spreadsheet, word processor, scientific and financial calculators…) and a special easy-to-use graphics environment.

Libretto 70CT (1997) runs standard Windows 95/NT. Except for the size this is a normal laptop. Toshiba somehow managed to squeeze a 2.5-inch hard drive and the Pentium CPU in a package with the size of Windows CE handhelds.

Osborne Executive (1983)

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Portable devices of early 80s were intended only for strong people because carrying a 12-kg computer was definitely not for everyone. This “luggable” was equipped with 4-MHz Zilog Z80, ~120kB of RAM and two 5.25” floppy disk drives which made it a standard CP/M machine. It was cleverly designed with a sturdy case where all ports and vents were covered (this was not typical for its competitors). There were also cool features like an easy way to load a different character set and a fast video circuit with dedicated video RAM.

Although Osborne Executive can display 80 characters per row the CRT screen is so small that longer work is not very comfortable. I don’t like the screen much not only because of letters with size of few millimeters but also because I see heavy flickering. This is definitely not a long persistence screen. Fortunately, you can attach an external screen using (monochrome) composite video output which can work with both standards (software selectable) – PAL 50Hz and NTSC 60Hz (NTSC looks better because of higher refresh rate).

The keyboard provides good tactile feedback and with an external screen attached you have no-compromise CP/M compatible computer. I don’t see this very portable but there were different standards back then. It was nice to have a way to transport a computer in a single package.

Infoworld resources: Osborne Executive ad, “When Your Micro Becomes an Orphan”

LightWave 3D Running on SGI Indigo2

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LightWave 3D started its life on Amiga as a part of the NewTek’s Video Toaster editing system. It evolved in a good stand-alone 3D modeling software and was very popular. However, when Commodore filed for bankruptcy (1994) nobody in the professional market believed in bright future of Amiga. NewTek needed to find a different OS for its products which resulted in support for Windows NT (x86, Alpha) and SGI IRIX (MIPS).

LightWave on SGI was not a very long story. There were only few versions released. The main problem was in price/performance ratio. SGI hardware was expensive and usually it didn’t make much sense to buy it for generic software that is also available for other CPU/OS platforms. LightWave offered way more performance for the same price on Alpha-based Windows NT workstations which was a preferred option for some time. One year later the market shifted to Intel Pentium Pro CPUs with similar performance and broader software support (Windows NT could run only 16bit Intel-x86 software on Alpha).

I have LightWave 3D 5.6 installed on SGI Indigo2 with 250-MHz MIPS R4400 CPU and the rendering performance is only slightly better than on my 133-MHz Pentium MMX-based Toshiba laptop. NewTek apparently didn’t optimize the program to take advantage of SGI hardware.

Another World

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Another World is one of my top 10 favorite games. I love cinematic platformers. FlashBack, Blackthorne (except the ugly Mac version), Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey/Exodus and Hearts of Darkness – all of them are great games but Another World has a very special place in my heart. I still remember how sad I was as a kid when Lester collapsed and his alien friend took him away at the end of the game. The cinematic character of the game was something completely new for me.

In Front of Osbornes

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This is me*… five years ago in front of Osborne Executive.

*) the one wearing the Space Invader T-shirt

Double CGA Display in Olivetti Quadero

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Although 640×400 (“double CGA”) LCD screens usually could display only “black” and “white” (so the 320×200 4-color mode was handled using multiple 2×2 1-bit patterns) this was an exception. The screen on Olivetti Quaderno can display four shades of grey with a good contrast. It reminds me playing games on old Game Boy handhelds…