emcalc@sugar.uu.net (William M. Schmidt) (02/10/89)
A while ago someone posted an article showing timings of the CMI processor accelerator board. It included FORTRAprograms linked with a replacement for the f77.rl library that comes with Absoft FORTRAN. Where can I get a hold of this library? I've had this board for over a month now and consider it well worth the money, but I've got a huge amount of FORTRAN that's just itching to see the 6888 Thanks, Bill Schmidt Texas Accelerator Center
billsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) (02/19/89)
From article <3409@sugar.uu.net:, by emcalc@sugar.uu.net (William M. Schmidt):
:
: A while ago someone posted an article showing timings of the CMI
: processor accelerator board. It included FORTRAprograms linked
: with a replacement for the f77.rl library that comes with Absoft
: FORTRAN. Where can I get a hold of this library? I've had this
: board for over a month now and consider it well worth the money,
: but I've got a huge amount of FORTRAN that's just itching to see
: the 6888
The man you need to talk to is Larry Gutkowski. His address (from the
PA Utilities disk) is:
Larry J. Gutkowski,
Technical Software Developer
305 S.E. 152nd Court
Vancouver, WA 98684
(206) 254-7974 (voice and/or message)
I know he has the library for sale, but I don't know how much he's
asking for it. He's done quite a bit better job of handling a peripheral
device type '881 than C= has done with the 1.3 IEEE libraries, so it's well
worth the investment. (IS there anyone out there who's re-compiled ASPICE
for '881 support yet?)
: Thanks,
:
: Bill Schmidt
: Texas Accelerator Center
:
--
-Bill Seymour ...tektronix!reed!percival!agora!billsey
...tektronix!sequent!blowpig!billsey
Creative Microsystems Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes
(503) 691-2552 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (02/22/89)
In article <1381@agora.UUCP> billsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) writes:
= The man you need to talk to is Larry Gutkowski. His address (from the
=PA Utilities disk) is:
an address in Vancouver Wash, irrelevant for this followup
=
= I know he has the library for sale, but I don't know how much he's
=asking for it. He's done quite a bit better job of handling a peripheral
=device type '881 than C= has done with the 1.3 IEEE libraries, so it's well
=worth the investment. (IS there anyone out there who's re-compiled ASPICE
=for '881 support yet?)
= -Bill Seymour ...tektronix!reed!percival!agora!billsey
= ...tektronix!sequent!blowpig!billsey
= Creative Microsystems Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes
= (503) 691-2552 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842
Would you please provide some specific examples? Where is the C= library
lacking? Is there a performance difference? Can they multitask? Is the
installation any more difficult? Does the cmi library work with a
68020/68881 combination?
The last is not a completely an irrelevant question even if
cmi does not sell an 020/881. The question was meant bring out a point
though. You see C= does not sell a memory mapped 881 device either yet
they support it with their libraries.
The design of the peripheral 68881 interface was set up so that
the libraries were a convenience for programmers that did not want to
deal with the details of software vs 68000/68881 vs 68020/68881,
however since the multitasking support is a required piece of software
that the vendor must provide, this means that and application does not
have to use the libraries to get at the 68881. This application should
be able to multitask with applications that do use the ieee libraries.
Ok, I'll go back to my cave now.
But I still want to know what the problems are with the 1.3 ieee libraries.
We are working on upgrades for V1.4 and want to know what the problems
are.
--
Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc.
{uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dalebillsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) (03/03/89)
From article <640@boing.UUCP:, by dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck):
: In article <1381@agora.UUCP: billsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) writes:
: = The man you need to talk to is Larry Gutkowski. His address (from the
: =PA Utilities disk) is:
:
: an address in Vancouver Wash, irrelevant for this followup
: =
: = I know he has the library for sale, but I don't know how much he's
: =asking for it. He's done quite a bit better job of handling a peripheral
: =device type '881 than C= has done with the 1.3 IEEE libraries, so it's well
: =worth the investment. (IS there anyone out there who's re-compiled ASPICE
: =for '881 support yet?)
:
: Would you please provide some specific examples? Where is the C= library
: lacking? Is there a performance difference? Can they multitask? Is the
: installation any more difficult? Does the cmi library work with a
: 68020/68881 combination?
I'm pretty much working from what Larry has told me here, so bear with
me... (I'm not a programmer in general, much less a FORTRAN programmer...)
I believe the main thing he ran into with the current IEEE libraries was the
lack of support for single precision. This is one of the things that I know
you are addressing in 1.4, but for right now... I've gotten a lot of calls from
people who can't match the performance of Larrys benchmarks using 'C' and the
IEEE libraries. I don't know for sure whether this is just indicative of the
differences between C and FORTRAN, or whether it's his library. My guess is
that it's a combination. His libraries aren't multitasking by themselves, for
that you need something like the fpu.library that Perry Kivolowitz wrote for
us at CMI. The fpu.library is distributed with all PAs on the utilities disk.
It works well with all the C programs that use the IEEEs also.
Larrys libraries are installed into the software at compile time, rather
than having a seperate library on the disk. That gives you larger code and
you have to compile a version seperately for 68881/68000 support. But right
now, it's the *only* way to get 68881 peripheral support using Absoft FORTRAN.
If you are compiling for a 68020/68881 combination, you are much better off to
go ahead and use the compile switch from Absoft, since I don't believe that
Larrys routines will work in that environment. Maybe he'll see this posting
and give more info. (I don't know if he has Usenet access...)
: The last is not a completely an irrelevant question even if
: cmi does not sell an 020/881. The question was meant bring out a point
: though. You see C= does not sell a memory mapped 881 device either yet
: they support it with their libraries.
: The design of the peripheral 68881 interface was set up so that
: the libraries were a convenience for programmers that did not want to
: deal with the details of software vs 68000/68881 vs 68020/68881,
: however since the multitasking support is a required piece of software
: that the vendor must provide, this means that and application does not
: have to use the libraries to get at the 68881. This application should
: be able to multitask with applications that do use the ieee libraries.
There's is no doubt that the IEEE route is the way to go for the
future. It works out for the best for both the programmer/software company
and for the hardware company to have one standard version that will work
well for any means of accessing a math chip, as well as for those people
who still don't have math chips. I personally hope that the changes that
are coming in 1.4 make it feasable for *every* piece of software that does
math to be compiled for IEEE. Right now, there's a performance loss for
people who are using integer math if they compile to use IEEE. They have to
convert to double precision and in the end there is still a speed *loss*
possible under a 68000/68881 environment. I have an example of this, the
PD (shareware?) ray tracing program, URay, from Dave Wecker. When compiled
to *not* use the math chip (In this case, for single precision) I get faster
render times on the demo pictures than when compiled to use the math chip
(Double precision). The code is Manx code, and my version of the 1.4 IEEEs
don't yet have the .lib stuff, so I haven't been able to try it out with
the new stuff. I imagine that the new single precision stuff will remove
all disadvantages...
: Ok, I'll go back to my cave now.
But, it's so nice and sunny out here! :-)
: But I still want to know what the problems are with the 1.3 ieee libraries.
: We are working on upgrades for V1.4 and want to know what the problems
: are.
I'll try and see if I can get Larry to expound further on what he's
seen. I seem to remember something about some transendental functions he
was supporting that weren't in the 1.3 IEEEs also...
: --
: Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc.
: {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
--
-Bill Seymour ...tektronix!reed!percival!agora!billsey
...tektronix!sequent!blowpig!billsey
Creative Microsystems Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes
(503) 691-2552 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842