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/*  Vivid 24 to Amiga speed comparison - ©1993 Digital Micronics, Inc.  */
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The accompanying executable will allow you to compare the speed of your
Commodore Amiga computer to that of our Vivid 24 rendering engine when
rendering a Mandelbrot.

If you do not own a Vivid 24, you can still run the program to check the
speed of your Amiga and the program will compare it's speed to the three
co-processor-equipped versions of the Vivid 24.

To use the program with your Vivid 24, you must put the file "EXTSRAM.RLM"
into "SAGE:Exec", place "extSRAM.library" into "SAGE:Libs".  Then put the
"Mandel.xxxx" files along with the "MANDEL.ABS" file in a directory some-
where together.  You can then run any of the "Mandel.xxxx" files to see
a comparison of your Amiga to your Vivid.

To use the program without a Vivid 24, simply run any of the "Mandel.xxxx"
programs to see a comparison of your Amiga to the Vivid 24.

All test results used in the non-Vivid comparison are based on a 40Mhz
Vivid 24.

For those of you who are interested (and those who think this may be all
smoke and mirrors) I've included the actual source code used to generate
the Mandelbrots.
     The file called "AmigaMandel.c" contains the main routines used to
set up the Vivid if it's there, time a rendering, set up and render on the
Amiga and time it's rendering.  You will note by looking at the "MakeFile"
that the code was optimized for speed and each version was customized for
the 68882, IEEE, or FFP as denoted by its file extension.  All
executables were compiled with SAS/C 6.3.
     The file "VividMANDEL.C" is the source for the TMS34082 math
coprocessors.  Each of the available coprocessors is loaded with this
code.  Additional code on the TMS34020 graphics processor is used to
control these coprocessors.  Each processor is given one line at a time
to render.  When finished, the coprocessor signals the 34020 and the data
is copied from the 34082 memory (SRAM) to the screen.  Then the 34082 is
given another line to do if any remain.  The 34020 then waits for a signal
from another coprocessor.  This technique is the simplest that will allow
the same code to run on one, two or four math coprocessors.

For a fair comparison, you'll notice the two source files are nearly
identical.  Although this is not the fastest algorithm for generating
Mandelbrots, it does allow a RELATIVE comparison of speeds.

As one last (marketing hype:) comment, remember that a speed of 30 times
your Amiga means that one Vivid can replace 30 Amigas!  One Amiga 4000
costs about $2500.  30 would cost $75,000.  One Amiga and a Vivid 24
stocked with 4 coprocessors would cost you about $8000 or nearly one
tenth the cost for the same rendering power.

For more information on the Vivid 24, please contact Digital Micronics
at (619) 931-8554.

Rick Tillery
(Digital Micronics, Inc.)

 PERMSSN    UID  GID    PACKED    SIZE  RATIO     CRC       STAMP          NAME
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
[generic]                 1352    3150  42.9% -lh5- bebc Jul 23  1993 _ReadMe
[generic]                 3419   12283  27.8% -lh5- 576c Jul 23  1993 AmigaMandel.c
[generic]                  866    1792  48.3% -lh5- 3b00 Jul 12  1993 extSRAM.library
[generic]                 3231   11638  27.8% -lh5- 3372 Jul 16  1993 extsram.rlm
[generic]                  216     387  55.8% -lh5- 6800 Jul 23  1993 MakeFile
[generic]                10339   17180  60.2% -lh5- adda Jul 23  1993 mandel.881
[generic]                  367     712  51.5% -lh5- 5e96 Jul 20  1993 mandel.abs
[generic]                10143   16980  59.7% -lh5- 11b5 Jul 23  1993 mandel.ffp
[generic]                10748   17896  60.1% -lh5- dbfb Jul 23  1993 mandel.ieee
[generic]                  959    2815  34.1% -lh5- 76e0 Jul 23  1993 VividMANDEL.C
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
 Total        10 files   41640   84833  49.1%            Jul 24  1993