Benchmarks on microcomputers

Anything Sinclair ZX Basic related; history, development, tips - differences between BASIC on the ZX80 and ZX81
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zsolt
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Benchmarks on microcomputers

Post by zsolt »

Hi all,

I have always been interested in what are the tests that the magazines just referred to as BMn.
Finally, in July I found an exact description of them.

I was curious about the performance of SPONZY, so i quickly tried them out using the EO.
Used ROMs for the test:ZX Spectrum, ZX81(in fast/slow), ZX81-SPONZY(in fast/slow/spup)
The outcome is surprising: the ZX81 in fast mode won in the first eight tests! (BM 1-4 video)
(sorry, but i had no patience to wait for the result of the ninth)

Then i modified the first (and renamed it to BM0) and was surprised again.

The results and the programs are in the attachment. Do you know sg about BM10+?

Zsolt
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BM_0-9.zip
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ZX81 (8K), ENTERPRISE 128, [ZX SPECTRUM (48K,+,+128K,+2,+2A), TS1000, TS1500, TS2068, Cambridge Z88, PRIMO A64 (red)]
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1024MAK
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Re: Benchmarks on microcomputers

Post by 1024MAK »

Interesting :D

I'm not that surprised that a ZX81 running in FAST mode just beats a 48K ZX Spectrum. The BASIC in the Spectrum is a development and extension of the ZX81 BASIC and on a real machine the first 16k of RAM on the Spectrum is affected by the ULA "pausing" the Z80 MPU so that the display is stable (contented memory).

The ZX81 and ZX Spectrum BASIC interpreters were designed to be compact and easy to use rather than for speed.

Earlier this week I was running a speed test on a BBC Master 128. I did notice that with BBC Basic the number of spaces (32 dec, 20 hex) entered as part of the program listing makes a significant difference when loops are involved.

This goes to show that the speed of interpreted code depends on how the program is written and the coding of the interpreter, just as much as the speed of the hardware :lol:

Mark
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zsolt
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Re: Benchmarks on microcomputers

Post by zsolt »

That's why the sponzy was made - to compare the interpreters on same hw.
The Fast mode is ideal for this purpose, no display/keyboard handling.
GZS
ZX81 (8K), ENTERPRISE 128, [ZX SPECTRUM (48K,+,+128K,+2,+2A), TS1000, TS1500, TS2068, Cambridge Z88, PRIMO A64 (red)]
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