Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucdavis!uop!greg From: greg@uop.EDU (Greg Onufer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Multitasking on the ST Message-ID: <491@uop.uop.EDU> Date: 8 Aug 89 07:41:52 GMT References: <8908021826.AA05333@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Followup-To: poster Organization: University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA Lines: 29 01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes: >It drives me nuts to see so many people worrying about multitasking on the >ST. Jeez, at 8 MHz on a 68000 without a co-processor, I'm having trouble >getting good performance running one application at a time. If a CPU intensive >app is running, I do not want to make it crawl any slower by asking the CPU >to service another application. Hell, most people crave multitasking but until >you have a 68030 and a co-processor or a 80386 and a co-processor, it ain't >worth worrying about for 99% of the users. Well, for comparison, a Sun-2 (or Sun 100U) uses a 10 Mhz 68010, which is not a quantum leap ahead of the 8 Mhz 68000. It runs SunOS 4.0, which many readers may recognize to be a performance limiter, especially compared to previous versions of SunOS. This system is in use at home right next to my ST. Even with the overhead of multiple processes and limited memory (Sun states that 8 Meg is the bottom limit in a useful system, I have 6 Megs), the Sun-100U is still performing useful work every day. Don't belittle the 68000, it is not a slow processor by any means. What you are noticing is poorly written systems software (ie, TOS & GEM). As the QuickST code demonstrates, the code in ROM is not incredibly optimal. What I am getting at is the ST, with a well written OS, could indeed execute multiple programs concurrently and do it well. The problems are not processor speed, but memory protection. Virtual memory is nearly impossible (on the 68000, not the 680[1234]0). Comments? Flames? Cheers!greg (greg@cheers.UUCP, cheers!greg@lll-winken.llnl.gov)