timing

	 Craig Finseth's Quick-and-Dirty HP95LX Timing Tests
	       posted to Comp.sys.handhelds 22 May 1991
		     32SII added 17 November 1991


Part 1: as a calculator

Problem 1: TVM functions, using built-in TVM, initial conditions:
		n	5 * 12
		i	?/
		PV	100,000
		PMT	-2,000
		FV	0
	solve for i [where applicable, it has been given a range of (0,0,0)]

Problem 2: TVM functions, as above, but using this solver equation:
	(1-EXP(-n*LNP1(i/100)))*PMT*100/i+PV=-FV*EXP(-n*LNP1(i/100))

	The 32SII uses the equation as given in the manual:
	 P*100*(1-(1+I/100)^-N)/I+F*(1+I/100)^-N+B
	(Due to limits in the 32SII's solver, initial values for I are .0001)

Problem 3: Solver equation X^3=3^X
	where applicable, X has been given a range of (50,50,50)

----------
Results
			time in seconds for problem
	model		1	2	3

	-12C		12.6

	-18C		 2.1	 7.1	41.3

	-27S		 1.3	 4.3	27.0

	-28S			 7.9	17.8
	 [2]			11.6	26.0

	32SII			 9.7	21.7

	-41CX[1]	17.1

	48SX			 3.1	15.1
	 [2]			 3.8	25.3

	95LX		  2	 3	16

[1] w/Advantage module
[2] displaying intermediate results

--------------------
Problem 4: Plot the equation from problem 3 using AUTO ranging, xmin
	of -2 and xmax of 4.  (28S does not support AUTO, a Y range of
	-1 to 1 is used.)

----------
Results
	model		time in seconds for problem 4	pixels	s/pixel

	-28S, plotting as written	20.1		137	0.1467
	 plotting X^3-3^X		19.7		137	0.1438

	48SX, plotting as written	26.4		131	0.2015
	 plotting X^3-3^X		23.6		131	0.1802

	95LX				12		180est	0.0667

------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: as an IBM PC

hardware:	PC is an IBM PC/XT w/Microsoft Mach 10 card
		Tosh is a Toshiba T1000SE

Measurement A: Central Point Software PCTools version 4.21 system Info
	1.0 = "original IBM PC"

Measurement B: "SYSINFO" program, origin unknown
	1.0 = "original IBM PC"

Measurement C1: Freya (Emacs-compatible text editor) CPU-intensive
	command (Help: building table of bindings; makes extensive use
	of pointer arithmetic, function calls, table searching, and
	string matching).  Measurement is time in seconds.

Measurement C2: Measurement C1 converted to an increasing, normalized
	scale.  Numerically: 26.8 / C1

----------
Results
			rating for measurement
	model		A	B	C1	C2	average

	PC slow		0.9	1.4	26.8	1.0	1.1
	PC fast		2.2	1.9	10.3	2.6	2.2	[1]

	Tosh slow	1.25	1.1	17.0	1.6	1.3
	Tosh fast	2.55	2.2	8.7	3.1	2.6	[1]

	95LX			2.5	18	1.5	2.0

[1] The doublings due to slow / fast change are consistent with the
vendor's claims.  In both cases, the difference between slow and fast
modes is claimed to be a doubling of the clock speed.


Conclusions:

- Depending upon the problem, the 95LX is from 1 to 3 times the speed
of a 48SX.

- If you are doing CPU register-intensive work, the 95LX is indeed the
claimed 2.5 times an original PC.  If you are doing memory
access-intensive work, the 95LX slows somewhat.  This is possibly due
to the very low power RAM chips having a slower cycle time.

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