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From: Harry_Wallace_Waddell@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: Number-crunching and math chips with the Atari ST
Message-ID: <6861@cup.portal.com>
Date: 25 Jun 88 17:55:29 GMT
References: <2940@watale.waterloo.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 39
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.3284

I am most certainly not an expert on the hardware side, i.e. the coprocessor,
chip, but I have been told by "reliable sources" that it is very difficult
to iterface the existing ST hardware with such a device. The Motorola 68020
user manual alludes to sofware emulation of the interface for the family
of chips on the whole. Hopefully one of you hardware experts out there in ST
land can enlighten us :-).

	I do on the other hand have some experience with mathematical program-
ing on the ST. About a year ago I wrote some optimized Discrete Fourier Trans.
routines.(i.e. w/ graphics and a few bells and whistles) My results were both
encouraging and discouraging.

	1. I write in C. I did a fair amount of research attempting to find
	   some PD code to assist me in my work. To put it bluntly, you are
	   very much on your own!
	2. If you like fortran you can plagarize (adapt) with impunity,
	   but, as we all know, real mathematicians don't use FORTRAN :-).

	3. Since those of us in ST land are running at a full 8 MHZ w/
	   a mess o' registers code optimization is "easily achieved".
	   Even without a coprocessor life ain't all that bad if you
	   use the tricks o' the trade i.e. intelligent mappings to lookup
	   tables in memory, ect..

I have and do prefer personally to use my 8 MHZ machine, having it all to
myself(wring hands and snicker greedily), as opposed to waiting for people
with ridiculous time consuming processes to get out of my way so I can get some
REAL work done.

BUT, when the 16MHZ board comes out I'll install it ASAP, w/ out hesitation!
No software mods needed!

Also, one of my summer projects is to write a few math utils.
If someone out there has some pd C code for mathematical programming please
post them! :-)

				Harry Waddell III

				Harry_Wallace_Waddell@cup.portal.com