myk@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (05/30/91)
(In reference to an earlier question with Subject: <none> about whether a 386sx is enough for Toolbook) Once our director went to a conference to demonstrate our Toolbook application, and they had a PS/2 55 for her, which is a 386sx. She said the performance seemed OK. I would qualify that, though. IF your graphics aren't too complicated, and IF you don't try to do any string searches. I am also told that at least for Toolbook 1.0, it runs noticeably faster if you have a math coprocessor. No explanation given, but I would guess that they are converting their virtual coordinates to pixel positions using floating-point arithmetic. That would certainly explain it. I have no idea whether this applies to 1.5, which we don't have yet. 1.5 is supposed to improve performance, and remove or relax a number of limitations in 1.0, e.g. you can now have full-screen color graphics (but I bet the book gets big real quick). Also search is supposed to be 26 times faster, which might actually make searches useable. ---------- None of the above is official pronouncements from Asymetrix, except the assertions they make about 1.5. Mike Oltz, Interactive Multimedia Group, Cornell University myk@cornella.bitnet myk@cornella.cit.cornell.edu