z80 timing... 6502 timing

From: Dwight Elvey <elvey_at_hal.com>
Date: Mon Apr 19 15:41:11 1999

"Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com> wrote:
> I don't know why this has to be so complicated. There need to be
> constraints in order to ensure a level playing field, but since there are
> two related objectives, (1) to find out which of the two processors in the
> title of this message is "faster" and (2) to generate the fastest code for
> them for comparison.

Hi
 I always have to wonder about the meaning of faster.
Although I like the 6502 for a lot of things and would
say that it is often faster than a 8080 for many things,
I also know that resources like page zero get used up
quickly. Once these are gone, things tend to slow down.
 I think we will continue to see that, like in the past,
most processors with about the same memory access speeds
will do about the same amount of work ( same bit count ).
On chip cache has changed that some but that just makes
another category. I would say any processor was superior
to another on small benchmarks unless the numbers were
in the 5X magnitude or more. Large application are more
useful in comparisons but it is hard to come up with
enough cross platform examples to make meaningful judgments.
 I've always said, one should stick with what makes you happy.
Dwight
Received on Mon Apr 19 1999 - 15:41:11 BST