angeloh@vice.UUCP (Angelo Hung) (11/12/84)
Recently, I put a 8087-4 on my XT. I ran through DOS diagnostics without any problem. However, a small benchmark (about 10 lines in basic) showed no sign of improvement in speed. The benchmark primarily consists of square root, exponential, and sin/cos. It took 400 seconds for w/ and w/o 8087. Is it because BASIC interpreter works much slower than those math operations? Or it is because 8087 compatability problem? Or even it is simply a bad chip? Does anyone out there experience same sort of problems? I appreciate it if somebody can give me some suggestions?
johnbl@tekig.UUCP (John Blankenagel) (11/13/84)
> Recently, I put a 8087-4 on my XT. I ran through DOS diagnostics > without any problem. However, a small benchmark (about 10 lines > in basic) showed no sign of improvement in speed. The 8087 requires its own op-codes. Basic written to be used on a system without an 8087 will not generate these op-codes (unless there is some switch in the basic operating system). In order to use the 8087 you will have to find some software that has these op-codes built in. Turbo Pascal from Borland can compile to use the 8087.
dela@ur-univax.UUCP (11/13/84)
The reason that your program didn't run faster is that the basic interpreter doesn't take advantage of the 8087 in your machine; basic remains blissfully ignorant of your attempts to make it's life easier! Gene Hartquist rochester!ur-univax!del
johnl@cca.UUCP (11/14/84)
#R:vice:-5300:ima:12700008:000:475 ima!johnl Nov 13 11:08:00 1984 [The question is why a Basic program that does floating point is no faster with an 8087 installed than without.] Basic doesn't use the 8087 floating point formats which suggests that it does its floating point arithmetic in software whether or not an 8087 is present. That turns out to be a fairly common state of affairs. Lotus 1-2-3 doesn't use an 8087 either, although their floating point simulation is fast enough that you don't mind so much. John Levine, ima!johnl
kfl@hoxna.UUCP (Kenton Lee) (11/16/84)
xxx Computer Innovations C and most other good C compilers can compile code for the 8087.