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Performance and Benchmark Results!

X86 Power !page  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 

Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
31 Jul 2018 19:31


Look how fast my AMIGA is



Daniel Sevo

Posts 299
31 Jul 2018 19:38


Is this some kind of new 68k "Bochs" port running?
(If I remember right, DOSBox only supported 386?)


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
31 Jul 2018 19:52


Daniel Sevo wrote:

Is this ..

Yes this is PC-TASK.

APOLLO 68080 does provide some new features like little-endian support
and PC GFX format support.
Of course PC-Task does not know these new features.
So there is in theory great tuning potential to get x86 Emulation much faster.


Andy Hearn

Posts 374
31 Jul 2018 21:01


wooo! i better start digging for my homeworld2 install disks, and a copy of win2k

that'd would be bonkers IF 1. PCtask or something got built to take full advantage of what a vamp can provide. win3.1 and solitare is already more than workable XD


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
31 Jul 2018 21:11


486SX 55MHz, I had worse even running Windows 95 >:-) Who knows, maybe I could get Win 2000 and Office 2003 running :-) or better some really light Linux.


Mr Niding

Posts 459
31 Jul 2018 21:12


Homeworld 1 system requirements;
 
  Windows 95, NT 4.0, 98
  Processor (CPU)  Intel Pentium II 233 MHz 
  System memory (RAM)  32 MB 
  Hard disk drive (HDD)  80 MB 
  Video card (GPU)  4 MB of VRAM
  DirectX 6.1 compatible
 
Ofcourse, why run it on Amiga when it runs perfectly on Windows ;) But would be neat. 1 step closer to "only system you need" territory.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
31 Jul 2018 21:14


Some optimized V4 PC Task could do most of it, if game can run on 486 code. RAM and VRAM requirements are kind of "done" if they dont mean 3D card. If not, wait for V6 Vamp with some 3D chip


Andy Hearn

Posts 374
31 Jul 2018 21:17


p2? ah shucks. i knew i'd just gone a bit crazy imagining that XD


Sean Sk

Posts 488
01 Aug 2018 00:52


It's weird, I have a retail version of Dir Work 2 by Chris Hames which also came with his other program PC Task and up until now I had never ever tried it. Might actually give it a go. My version is 2.0 but I see v4.4 is freely available so will have a look at that.


M Rickan

Posts 177
01 Aug 2018 04:40


Is there a native FPGA x86 implementation available for comparison?

Curious to see the type of performance that could be achieved.


Eric Gus

Posts 477
01 Aug 2018 04:49


m rickan wrote:

  Is there a native FPGA x86 implementation available for comparison?
 
  Curious to see the type of performance that could be achieved.
 

 
  Well there is this ao486 ..  EXTERNAL LINK


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
01 Aug 2018 06:36


Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

Some optimized V4 PC Task could do most of it,

Software optimization could be done on PC-Task.
All Vampires would equally benefit from this - not only V4.

With little Software tweaking on PS-Task "High end 468 performance" is a realistic goal for the Vamp - this would allow running many DOS games with good speed.



Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
01 Aug 2018 07:10


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

  Some optimized V4 PC Task could do most of it,
 

  With little Software tweaking on PS-Task "High end 468 performance" is a realistic goal for the Vamp - this would allow running many DOS games with good speed.

Most of DOS era games do run on high end 486 and quite a lot of productivity software too. Tuning it from current 55MHz level to 66-100 (DX2-DX4) area would do the magic.



Michael Nurney

Posts 283
02 Aug 2018 14:04


Of course an issue is sound...

Unless I’m mistaken , sound blaster isn’t included in pctask ? I forget if beeper is?


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
02 Aug 2018 22:19


Yes, from v3 manual
  --------------------
  "The Sound option emulates basic PC sound. This is equivalent to the
  motherboard sound present on most real PCs and is intended for simple beeps.
  It does not emulate SoundBlaster or other PC sound cards."

  -----------------

  Back to Ser Clives Spectrum/QL style sounds :-)
 
  Well,DOSBox can emulate SB, can we steal some code?
 
  Other source could be some "PC X" emulator I have never tried.


M Rickan

Posts 177
03 Aug 2018 02:46


Looks like it's fairly comprehensive but not particularly fast. Should at least outperform software emulation running on a reimplementation of a CPU.

Maybe Gunnar will give us his take on the theoretical performance.


Andy Hearn

Posts 374
03 Aug 2018 10:24


from What Gunnar's said so far, the vamp already provides support for little endian in hardware. PC-Task effectively needs to be re-compiled for this, and any potential enhancements AMMX can bring to the table as well. so the vamp is good and done, but the software is good, but can be made better? only downside is if there was a vamp specific version of PC-Task, it would be incompatible with real 68k hardware...

that's my understanding anyway.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
03 Aug 2018 14:43


m rickan wrote:

  Looks like it's fairly comprehensive but not particularly fast. Should at least outperform software emulation running on a reimplementation of a CPU.
 

 
Two comments.
 
A) Adding a hardware 486 in an FPGA would mean adding something like a 2nd VAMP. This means you have to pay $$$ for hardware.
Are you advocation people shall pay another $300 for a new FPGA board?

 
B) APOLLO is technically miles more advanced than a 486.
And Apollo is clock by clock much much more powerful.
Lets as rough estimate say Apollo is 3 times faster than a 80MHz 486
Of course the emulation will cause a lost of performance.
 
The point now is how much can the lost minimized.
If you assume a reasonable tweaked emulation code, then outrunning a real 486 should be no problem for APOLLO.
 
Spending $$$ on a new FPGA card to run x486 seems to me like stupid idea if with software emulation you could get faster than x486 performance.


Saladriel Amrael

Posts 166
03 Aug 2018 15:55


A rough estimation would be something between a top knotch overclocked 486 and a low end Pentium

That would be awesome because it is where DOS retrogaming gives it's best.
Of course if Soundblaster emulation can be stuffed in it would be even better



M Rickan

Posts 177
03 Aug 2018 18:41


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

  Are you advocation people shall pay another $300 for a new FPGA board?

Nooo... I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on the type of performance that could be attained through an optimized FPGA implementation of x86.


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