dsnow@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Doug Snow) (10/20/87)
The following are most of the responses I got with respect to
my question regarding Nec V20 performance in a stock PC running
Nortons SI. I stripped a lot of headers, thus credit is missing.
I got quite a few responses, thanks very much to all, especially
those I couldn't respond to.
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I put one of these in my nameless clone last year. I get a Norton SI
of 1.7 . This mostly illustrates how arbitrary the Norton SI is.
I did some timings before and after installing it, and found that the
beta-release compiler I was running was speeded up about 10%. This
compiler was (at the time) fairly I/O bound, so the improvement may
have been somewhat better than it appeared. I have seen claims that
the v20 gives 10-20% better performance than the 8088 overall, and I
tend to believe them. The Norton SI just happens to concentrate on
certain things that the v20 is particularly good at, thus the inflated
figure.
I dont know if this was the explanation you were looking for. Write
and tell or ask me more.
yrs, b.
The SI index on an 8Mhz XT is around 3.0 and 3.1.
My XT clone (4.77MHz) with a V20 gives SYSINFO 1.7 or 1.8 depending
on the time of day, phase of the moon, etc.
No incompatibility problems to report.
+--------------
| Clint Jeffery, University of Arizona
| cjeffery@arizona.edu -or- {ihnp4 noao}!arizona!cjeffery
+--------------
SI gave me a 1.7 on a Tandy-1000, it was 0.9 before the V20...
Tom
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Tom Armistead
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!killer!toma
I Have been running a NEC V20 chip in my otherwise stock IBM-XT for
nearly a year. Norton's SI reports a 1.7 but I don't think the
improvement is that dramatic. When I first installed the NEC I thought
I could perceive a difference but in a very short time I got used to
it and I can say that I can notice the speed improvement now. There
have been absolutely no problems running any thing that I have tried
and the chip only cost me $9.00 so I see no reason to take it out.
A little program that I recently found on various bulletin boards
that I frequent called SPEEDER.COM boosts that SI rating to 1.8.
Again that is not very dramatic but the price is right and every
little bit helps.
Fred
Doug,
As you probably saw in the header, I work for NEC. I'm an application
engineer for communications parts, but I'm in the same facility as the
V series guys. I've done some looking and we don't have a Norton SI
figure, but we do have all sorts of statistics for performance
improvements over the 8088.
I'd be happy to send you these if they'll do. Just let me know.
- Eric Hanselman
eric@necntc.nec.com
harvard!necntc.nec.com!eric
We replaced our 8088s with V20s two years ago. They've worked flawlessly
with all software (we don't use anything that has embedded critical timing
loops in software). Norton 3.1 SI gives a 1.7. These XTs are clones running
at 4.77 MHz.
--Michael A. Barnstijn (VP Software Systems, Research In Motion Limited)
I have an XT clone from Taiwan running at 8 MHz. I have installed a NEC
V20 and Norton SI gives me a relative performance of 3.0.
At 4.7 MHz it gives a performance of 1.8.
Hope this is any use,
Berend Jan Beugel (beugel@klipper.cs.vu.nl)
1.8 on a 4.77Mhz Tandy 1200. This is only an indication of interger multiply.
You do NOT get 80% performance increase over the standard 8088. It is more
like 5%-10% in overall performance. One thing to note is if you do compile
programs that use a_lot of interger data the performace is slightly better,
but all floating_point operations run at basically same. Cheers, Gerard
ghynes@garfield.UUCP
ghynes@mun.BITNET
Doug,
I've put NEC's V20 in my Tandy 1000. Boy what a difference in
math (no co-processor) speed. I've always had faith in the old Z-80
processor.
Anyhow, Norton's Advanced Utilities on my machine reported it to
have a NEC v20 as the CPU, and System Speed to be 2.4 times faster than
a PC/XT. Much to my dispair, however, it seems to think that my Tandy
is a Compaq. Oh well, must be the V20 confusing SI.
Joe.
ps: My 1000 is not one of the old 1000/A's. Mine's one of the new
breed 1000/SX's. That speed above is when the CPU is set for 7.16 Mhz.
I believe the old number with the 8088-2 was 1.4
Doug,
I have an IBM PC Clone that can run at 4.77 or 8.0 Mhz
Here are my results with/without NEC V20 and turbo mode:
8088 4.77Mhz Mode SI=1.0
8088 8.0 Mhz Mode SI=1.7
NEC V20 4.77Mhz Mode SI=1.7/1.8
NEC V20 8.0 Mhz Mode SI=3.1
Hope this helps
Just on a 4mz system (no turbo or anything), virgin PC, I pushed 1.8 with
all device drivers loaded. (norton si rating).
Over all speed was 1.3 (60msec HD & V20). I am hoping to get a turbo board
or something to raise it to around 3 or 4.?. If I can get a CPU replacement
(such as a dedicated 286) I could push 13 at 12mz.
Later.....
I haven't run SI (partly 'cause I don't have it) but I do have
a PC with a v20 in my office if you want to run it. We did some tests
comparing the intel part to the v20 running port, and there seems to
be only about a 5% overall improvement.
I have a V20 based PC. Norton's SI produces a 3.0! I would
definetely recommend upgrading if that's what you are looking
to do. Also supports dual speed - 4.77Mhz, 8Mhz.
-Dave Kurtiak (dmkdmk@ecsvax)
UNC - Greensboro
I ran a V20 in my Compaq Plus since it first came out (the V20, not the
machine :-) until I sold it several months ago. The original machine posted
a 1.0 (not surprising). Addition of a V20 jumped that to 1.7 to 1.8.
However, that's a lousy benchmark. I noted only a 7-11 percent improvement
in real-world tasks (Turbo Pascal compiles from/to memory, AutoCAD
recalcs, etcetera). In short, it's a nice, cheap way to get a few percent
more out of your machine for about $10...but don't expect more than that.
--
Yes, I have run SI on my PC with a V20 installed. At 4.77Mhz SI reports
1.8 times original PC speed. (And SI did report 1.0 for the original 8088).
I now have a V20 running at 8Mhz in the same machine and SI now reports 3.0.
I have a TURBO PC clone with a V20 and at 8Mhz it does 3.1nortons
I don't have the 4.77Mhz norton index with me.
My 10 MHZ XT with v20-10 does about 3.7 SI and advanced SI of 4.0
and disk of 1.6 for a 3.6
I have a NEC V20 running in a 4.77/8.00 Mhz PC Clone and get the following:
4.77Mhz 8.00Mhz
SI 1.8 SI 3.1
This is with Norton's v4.0 SI program.
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Doug Snow, Arts Computing Office, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
dsnow@watdcsu.waterloo.EDU ...!watmath!watdcsu!dsnow
dougsnow@watdcs.NETNORTH
doug@artspcs.watstar.waterloo.EDU