Virtual Dimension has released an English version of their Amiga + Retro-Computing 2002 show report. New products which were sold at this small fair, include AmigaOne systems running Linux, Pegasos systems running MorphOS and even a new C64 compatible Retro motherboard, called the c-one, was being presented at the fair. Regarding the AmigaOne motherboards, initial G3/G4 benchmark comparisons are now available.
For an idea on what Amithlon was like, VD’s previous Amiga 2001 fair report will provide much insight. Sadly due to issues the emulator known as Amithlon is now called Umilator and another product likely to be released under the Amithlon name, was previously known as AmigaXL.
http://www.virtualdimension.de/inscene/amiga2001/indexe.html
Be sure to download the English version if you don’t manage the German language.
Does anyone else notice that a low-end Athlon XP utterly demolished the G4 800?
Yes, but note the blurb at the bottom of the page:
(no Altivec optimisations were used)
Will gcc make Altivec optimizations? How good are they? I think I’ve read here and there that you need to manually sprinkle Altivec instructions (?) in your code to take advantage of the G4 hardware. Can anyone tell me if this is so.
I’d *love* to see an entry for Altivec-optimized G4 code (to see how it compares with the unoptimized one shown).
Altivec can make alot of difference with regard to performance and also AmigaOS should squeeze every drop of performance out of the hardware.
Also Dual CPU modules are coming:
http://www.soft3.net/pages/pictures.php
And 1.3 Ghz G4s are coming soon to the AmigaOne-XE as well:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=199&foru…
Are there any plans for Amiga systems/motherboards based on the PPC 970 when it becomes available?
I realize this is probably a premature inquiry, since even the G3/G4 systems aren’t available yet. But hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask, does it? 😉
The modern incarnation of gcc does have some support for Altivec. There’s a flag to turn it on. A program does need to be written in a way that is Altivec-friendly in order to provide good performance.
I did do multiple tests of Postgresql compiled by gcc with Altivec versus without. The non-Altivec version actually averaged slightly worse than the with-Altivec version, but the difference was not statistically significant.
Sincerely yours,
Jeffrey Boulier
Sorry, I meant that the version of postgresql compiled with altivec performed slightly *worse* than the version of postgresql compiled without altivec.
Here’s the raw numbers.
MacOS X.II w/ gcc3 : 13.16 seconds
MacOS X.II w/ gcc3 -faltivec : 13.31 seconds
T-Test: MacOS X.II w/ gcc3 vs. MacOS X.II w/gcc3 & -faltivec
T=-1.83
Pooled, equal variance: DF=10, Pr > |T| = .0971
Satterthwaite, unequal variance: DF=6.55, PR > |T| = .1128
Here’s a link to a post I made which goes into the tests in a bit more detail, assuming the link doesn’t wrap and break:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=f9137606.0208311445.454bdb16~*…
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
it was fun to watch the movie, especially the part about the Commodore One, it would be great fun to own such a thing. However, it makes me wonder how large the retro computing market really is?
“However, it makes me wonder how large the retro computing market really is?”
Growing fast.
Compare the market for tube based audio gear.
It could be quite interesting. I can hardly belive Apple’s Mhz myth ramblings so I would like to see some real benchmarks (I do know how such benchmarks can be missleading).
“However, it makes me wonder how large the retro computing market really is?”
Large enough it seems for people to be able to produce new things and make a profit. I don’t know if they could survive on it exclusively (it seems the online shops I’ve seen selling Amiga gear also sell PC gear for example, and the programmers may well work on other platforms), but enough to make it worth their while putting in the time and effort.
I think this is great, not just because I like some of the clever and quirky stuff I see in the video (I think the c-one is great, maybe not completely sane, but great!), but also because it shows that there is a sustainable market out there for machines and operating systems which don’t ship 10s of millions a year (Wintel) or even a few million (Apple).
This has got to be good news for all the alternatives out there, both in hardware and software. You don’t have to be able to beat Microsoft, you don’t even have to be able to beat Apple, you just have to be able to satisfy enough people that your project becomes self sustaining, whether the currency is money (end users pay for what others develop and build), or goodwill and code sharing (the end users ARE the developers).
As a developer my life would probably be easiest if the whole world used Wintel (only one target platform), but that would be a very boring world. I think variety is far more interesting, and far more exciting.
Thanks Jeff. Wow. Something seems very wrong here.