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GEM Bench V3.0 © Ofir Gal 24.7.93 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features in V3.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Improved interface GEM Bench now uses dialog windows instead of modal dialog boxes. You may open several windows, move them around, close and top them. At any time you have access to the menu bar. If you open several windows at once, changing something in one is automatically reflected in the other. Changing the Blitter state in the main window for example is also reflected in the Save or System Info windows if these are open, even if they are partially hidden. If you have several windows open, you can top any window by clicking on it or by selecting its menu entry or button that invoked it in the first place. The menu bar can be used to perform a collection of tests. Three entries are available, Display runs all graphic tests, CPU performs the math and memory access tests and All Tests simply runs all tests. This items also have keyboard shortcuts which are available at ANY time. The Hardware Reference box has an improved layout, making it easier to work out which system you are comparing your setup to. * FPU support The float math tests now use an FPU if one is installed. The file AUTOFPU.RUN must be in the same directory as GEMBENCH.PRG for this to work. There is a special text file called FPU_CPU.TXT that discusses some of the difficulties in benchmarking the FPU. * New test routines Many of the routines have been improved. Notably, the CPU tests are now in assembler as opposed to BASIC (Thanks to Eric Northwood). The FPU test is written in Lattice C. The graphics tests have also been improved. * System Information The Info button opens a dialog displaying machine type, TOS version, AES and GEMDOS versions, NVDI, FPU and other information about the system. When using the Save or Print facilities, GEM Bench now adds info about TOS version, MultiTOS (MiNT) version, Blitter, NVDI, screen resolution and FPU. * MultiTOS GEM Bench is now MultiTOS compatible, utilising dialogs in windows which can be moved around the screen, topped and closed. The menu bar and therefore desk accessories and other applications are always available (except when test is in progress). The best way to run GEM Bench under MultiTOS is to quit the Desktop (click on the Desktop menu entry while holding <Control>). Then using Load... to run GEM Bench. This reduces the overhead of having to redraw the desktop between tests. If you run GEM Bench from the desktop, the GEM Dialogue box and GEM Window tests will be very slow. Process priority may be set by pressing the Priority button. This will bring up a dialog box where you can enter the required priority level. Positive values increase priority and negative numbers decrease it. The value range is -20 to +20. This sets ABSOLUTE priority level as opposed to delta (relative) values. * Bug fixes and general improvements The ST Review version (2.5) had a bug which caused the system to hang when trying to move the cursor in the Save and Print dialogues. This is now fixed. When saving test results more than once, the chosen path is preserved, making the process a little easier. The justified text test has a cleaner appearance when not using NVDI. ============================================================================= Introduction ------------ This program is Shareware, if you like it and use it you are required to pay for it. Please send £5 to the address below. If you enclose a blank disk and an SAE I will send you a registered version of GEM Bench and a selection of my other programs. I will accept foreign currency from North America and Germany which I can use to register shareware overseas. US and Canada - $10. Germany 15DM. About the program: I wrote the program because I was never sure what other benchmark programs were exactly testing. Most benchmarks for the ST come with screen accelerators like NVDI and Quick ST, while the results are not tweaked I felt that an independent benchmark was needed. The NVDI benchmark GEM_TEST tests the VDI text routines by displaying various font sizes and effects as well as a 20 point font. This is something NVDI is very good at (large fonts) but not necessarily used much. Warp9 and Turbo ST are not that good at large fonts and do not give a high score at the text test. Quick Index is another benchmark that almost totally ignores GEM, most tests are BIOS and GEMDOS related. It tends to produce very good results with Quick ST which do not represent reality in my opinion. I am sure GEM Bench is not perfect either, but I wrote it without any particular bias, I truly wanted to see how effective the blitter chip was and which screen accelerator was the fastest. I also wanted to see how much faster the Falcon really is and how it compares with a TT. The subject was discussed on CIX and I took the advice of users and programmers while writing the program so hopefully we now have a definitive test for the Atari range of computers. I am open to suggestions so please write to me if you have any. I would also like to hear of any problems you may have running GEMBench. Ofir Gal 3 Downs Road Beckenham Kent BR3 2JY United Kingdom I can also be contacted via email - ogal@cix.compulink.co.uk ============================================================================= User Manual ----------- GEM Bench runs in any reolution with at least 640*200 pixels. This includes ST high, ST medium, TT high, TT medium, TT low. All Falcon modes are also supported except ST low and True Colour. When first run, the program simply puts up a small menu bar. To start the test select Open from the File menu (or press Control+O). The Main Window --------------- The main dialogue box shows the test results on the left, these will initially be zero, and the various options on the right. To start the tests click on the Test button and leave the mouse. When the tests are completed the results will be displayed in the format: Test time took in seconds ratio If you run the test on a basic machine you should get 100%, this means your ST is running in its normal, terribly slow state. In addition you can run a single test by clicking on its name or the keyboard shortcut. On the bottom right you will see the hardware reference box with three buttons. The first should show your computer model (ST, STE, MegaSTE, TT or Falcon). Clicking on this button pops up a menu where you can select which machine you want to compare your system to. The second button is normally the Blitter button but on a TT it changes to FastRAM. This does NOT change the blitter state, it lets you compare your system with an ST with or without a blitter. The third button lets you compare your setup to a system with a Floating Point Unit (FPU) if enabled. All TTs have an FPU so if you select a TT this button will be selected for you. To compare your system to a MegaSTE with a Blitter and FPU for example, first select the MSTE from the popup menu, then select the Blitter and FPU buttons. * Note that the old Mega ST is considered an ST. * All comparisons are to a machine running in 2 colour mode (monochrome). Save and Print The other buttons can be used to print or save the test results to disk. A small box will appear where you can type in details of the test. The program will automatically enter the machine type, blitter state and TOS version as well as screen resolution and other system info. Info The Info button displays a dialog with system information and also tells you which machine configuration you are comparing your system to. Blitter You can use this button to switch the blitter on and off, you will be surprised to see the difference it makes, especially on 8MHz STs and STEs. If your ST has no blitter this button will be disabled. On the Falcon it is not possible to switch the blitter off so the button will always be selected. If you have NVDI on the Falcon you can use this button to toggle the blitter state, otherwise it has no effect. Priority The Priority button only has effect when running under MultiTOS and lets you adjust the priority level MultiTOS allocates to GEM Bench. Statistics The statistics box is for a quick evaluation, the Display entry is simply an average of all graphics tests. The CPU entry is a simple average of the other tests. The bottom result is an UNWEIGHTED average of all tests. It is important to note that these results do not necessarily reflect reality. It is much better to look at the specific tests and see which ones matter to you. For example you may get an excellent result with the VDI graphics test which will affect the statistics. If all you use your computer for is plain text this result is not relevant to you. Instead, you should look at tests like VDI text and scrolling. The Menu Bar ------------ Desk About - This displays some info about GEM Bench. File Open (Control+O) - Opens the main window. Quit (Control+Q) - Quit GEM Bench. Test You can use these menu items to quickly test several functions in one go. These items are active whether the main window is open or not. Display (Control+D) - Run all display oriented tests. This includes all text, graphics, dialog and window tests. CPU (Control+C) - Run all CPU related tests - Integer division, Floating point math and memory access. All Tests (Control+A) - Run all tests. User Interface -------------- GEMBench is the first program to include the xform_do toolbox routines included with the new version of HiSoft BASIC. Each test name is also a button. Clicking on it runs that test. You will also notice that each button has one underlined character - this is the keyboard shortcut for that button. Press Alt+S to save or Alt+D to run the dialogue box test. In addition, the cursor in the Save and Print dialogues (activated by pressing the corresponding button) has several enhancements: 1. Pressing Shift+cursor key moves the cursor to the beginning or end of a text field. 2. Tab and backtab are supported. Backtab is achieved by pressing Shift+Tab this moves the cursor in the opposite direction to Tab. 3. Pressing the Undo key has the same effect as clicking the Cancel button in any dialgue. In the main dialogue, this is the same as pressing the Quit button. Note that both left and right mouse buttons are active in GEM Bench. Technical Info -------------- This is a list of all the tests and how they are perfomed as well as information for the non-programmer. Dialogue Box - A complex dialogue box is drawn to screen. All form_dial calls are used except FMD_FINISH which is only used to clear the 'mess' at the end. VDI Text - This is the standard v_gtext call which is used by most programs to display text on screen. Text Effects - This test displays text using v_gtext while changing text attributes using vst_effects and text colour with vst_color. Small Text - This test displays the small system font. The size is changed using vst_point, the text is displayed using v_gtext. VDI Graphics - The test draws a rectangle and circle in replace mode, changing their position, fill pattern and colour before each draw. This is followed by v_pline in xor mode. The VDI primitives used are v_bar and v_ellipse and attributes changed are vsf_color and vsf_interior. GEM Window - This test creates a window then displays it. Uses the AES calls wind_create and wind_open and opens a window 640*400 or 640*200 pixels according to resolution. The window is then closed. This allows to compare an ST to a TT without having the TT open a larger window if a large monitor is used. Integer Division - Simply divides integers. Something every program does at some point. Float Math - Multiplies and divides and adds single and double precision numbers. Also calculates trigonometric functions and logarithms. Uses an FPU if one is installed. RAM and ROM access - Simply reads from RAM and ROM. Useful to show the benefits of FastRAM. ROM location is obtained via the BIOS so if you have TOS installed in RAM, the ROM test will be reading from RAM possibly affecting the speed. Blitting - The test draws a black box on screen then moves it along by saving the screen area to memory then writing it back with a slight offset. VDI Scroll - Uses the standard vro_cpyfm to scroll text in a window. This function is used by most text editors and word processors. Justified Text - Uses v_justified while constantly changing justification parameters. VDI Enquire - This runs through various system enquiries, again most GEM programs use this calls. ============================================================================ Thanks to Graeme Rutt, Roger Davies, Eric Northwood, Joe Connor, John Eason, Iain Laskey, Andrew J Lee, Don Maple, Alistair Bodin, Mark Webster, Andre Willey, Gunter Minnerup, Charles Smeton, HiSoft, John Cordes, Kevin Fason, Daron Brewood, Darek Mihocka and everyone else on CIX for their help.