Why is CP/M faster than DOS

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Thu Sep 2 08:58:28 1999

At 09:51 AM 9/2/99 -0400, you wrote:
>
>So can some of the experts here tell me why CP/M is so much faster ?

My first impression is the difference between an OS that's hard-coded
for particular devices versus one that's more dynamic and hot-patched
with device drivers.

I'm sure CP/M eventually added those dynamic features, but DOS was
much more I/O bound at boot time. You can get DOS in ROM, too.

Second, there's that (yet unnamed?) law that says as the CPU gets
faster, software designers feel it's more acceptable for their
software to run slower and take longer to load and consume more
space on the storage media. Tell me why my dual Pentium Pro system
takes ten seconds to "new" a document in Word. (Load a dozen
wizards and templates I don't use, all so I can pick "blank".)

- John
Received on Thu Sep 02 1999 - 08:58:28 BST