GEM Bench V3.40 ½ Ofir Gal 1993 - 1994 ============================================================================= This program may not be included on magazine cover disks or CDROM compilations without permission. ============================================================================= ============================================================================= Thnaks to everyone who has registered GEMBench. The registration fee is still 5 UK Pounds and helps me find the time to continue development. ============================================================================= ============================================================================= List of files: GEMBENCH.PRG - program file GEMBENCH.RSC - resources GEMBENCH.TXT - this text file AUTOFPU.RUN - Auto detecting float test executable IEEE.RUN - 68000 only float test executable GEMBENCH.IMG - an image file of GEMBench HGT.TXT - Documentation of HiSoft GEM Toolbox interface ICON.RSC - monochrome icon for NewDesk, TeraDesk, etc. SLOWFAST.TOS - utility to change program flags for fastram Registered versions also have an additional file called GEMBENCH.REG. Under no circumstances should you give away a copy of this file. ============================================================================= Planned features: * User sets: the user will be able to create further references for additional setups. The number of user sets will probably be limited to 20 (so they fit into a non-scrolling popup menu). The user sets will be availbe from a popup menu and each set may be given a name. It will be possible for example to add a reference to an ST with a T28 board running under Mag!x with NVDI to the existing presets. This feature will only be available to registered users. * I am currently looking at the issue of TTs again. There seem to be far too many variations between TTs, mainly in memory access times. * The authors of Mag!x have expressed some concern regarding the way GEMBench behaves under a multi-tasking system. I am also investigating this. * I am hoping to add a SpeedoGDOS test. This is not as simple as it may seem and may not be included as soon as I hope. The main problem with adding new tests is getting test results for all the possible system references. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features and bug fixes in V3.40 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * There's a new test for new style dialog boxes. This test displays a more modern looking dialogue box which is becoming popular. The routine uses progdefs and BASIC code to draw custom objects using the VDI. * There are three radio buttons in the reference box. Use these to check your system against various colour modes. It is interesting to see how the Falcon and TT are slowed down in hi-res colour modes. The buttons change according to the model. * I had to remove the All Tests button because of space restriction at standard ST resolutions. The Return key however still works as before and performs all tests. Control+ has the same effect. You may also use the menu or toolbar to start the tests. * The file GEMBENCH.IMG is now included in the distribution. It shows the main window with the menu and toolbar. * GEMBench now uses a toolbar which is user controlled. The toolbar has the same function as the menu, but gives a quick, one-click access to all functions. The tools are (from left to right): Save, Print, Display tests, CPU tests, All tests, System Info, MiNT Priority, Blitter, and User Preferences. The last tool on the right is the Exit icon. * User Options: You now have some control over the GEMBench interface. There are five options currently. The dialog box to set these is available from the window menu or from the toolbar. Display Menubar Determines whether the window menu bar is displayed. The keyboard shortcuts are active regardless. Display Toolbar This determines whether the toolbar is displayed. Frame Headlines This puts small frames around the titles of the boxes. Right Button Drive Under GEM, the user may click and select objects in background windows by holding down the right mouse button and clicking with the left. If you have this option selected then the right mouse button can be used in background windows. This option means that you no longer have to hold the button down, just use the right button on all windows. Zoom boxes Enables/disables the growing and shrinking boxes when opening and closing windows and dialog boxes. The dialog has the standard Save, OK and Cancel buttons. Save is only available to registered users. * The time delay for unregistered users has been reduced. * Iconify bug fixed (requires AES 4.10) * Print and Save went slightly wrong in v3.30, should be OK now. * New About window featuring Doug's stopwatch. You can open the About window with a new shortcut - Shift+. Try it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Features and bug fixes in V3.30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * GEMBench got a face lift. The new design is based on v2 of the HiSoft BASIC GEM Toolbox, featuring check buttons, a menu bar inside the GEMBench main window and keyboard shortcuts for the popup menus. The Hardware Reference popup menus now have keyboard shortcuts, F1 to F6 for computer type and Shift+F1 to Shift+F6 for the PC based GEMulator. The window menu doubles most of the main menu bar but also includes the registration dialog. The menu bar now replaces the buttons that used to be located on the right side of the window. To find out more about the HGT user interface read the file HGT.TXT. File Save - Saves the test results. It opens a window where you can enter extra details about the tests. Print - Same as Save, but prints the test results instead. Test This is the same as the main menu bar. Options System Info - Displays some information about the hardware and software configuration. MiNT Priority - If running under MiNT, this lets you adjust the process priority of GEMBench. Blitter - If your computer is Blitter equiped you may use this to toggle the state of the Blitter chip. Registration - This opens a dialog where you can register GEMBench. See REGISTER.TXT for more info. * GEMBench now works in TrueColour on the Falcon. It should also work on the Nova TC card and Crazy Dots TC. * A new registration scheme is now in effect. See REGISTER.TXT for details. * GEMBench does not crash anymore when trying to save to a write-protected disk. * There is no exit button for the main window. You can still close it using the Closer gadget or by pressing Undo. ============================================================================= USER MANUAL ============================================================================= Introduction ------------ This program is Shareware, if you like it and use it you are required to pay for it. Please send œ5 to the address below. If you enclose a blank disk and an SAE I will send you a registered up to date version of GEM Bench. I will accept foreign currency from North America and Germany which I can use to register shareware overseas. US - $10. Germany - 15DM. About the program: I wrote the program because I was never sure what other benchmark programs were exactly testing. Most benchmarks for the ST come with screen accelerators like NVDI and Quick ST, while the results are not tweaked I felt that an independent benchmark was needed. The NVDI benchmark GEM_TEST tests the VDI text routines by displaying various font sizes and effects as well as a 20 point font. This is something NVDI is very good at (large fonts) but not necessarily used much. Warp9 and Turbo ST are not that good at large fonts and do not give a high score at the text test. Quick Index is another benchmark that almost totally ignores GEM, most tests are BIOS and GEMDOS related. It tends to produce very good results with Quick ST and Turbo ST which do not represent reality in my opinion. I am sure GEM Bench is not perfect either, but I wrote it without any particular bias, I truly wanted to see how effective the blitter chip was and which screen accelerator was the fastest. I also wanted to see how much faster the Falcon really is and how it compares with a TT. The subject was discussed on CIX and I took the advice of users and programmers while writing the program so hopefully we now have a definitive test for the Atari range of computers. I am open to suggestions so please write to me if you have any. I would also like to hear of any problems you may have running GEMBench. Ofir Gal 3 Downs Road Beckenham Kent BR3 2JY United Kingdom I can also be contacted via email - ogal@cix.compulink.co.uk ============================================================================= User Manual ----------- GEM Bench runs in any resolution with at least 640*200 pixels. This includes ST high, ST medium, TT high, TT medium, TT low. All Falcon modes are also supported except ST low and True Colour unless you use ScreenBlaster or BlowUp030. The following text documents the facilities provided by the program. Please read the file HGT.TXT for more info about the user interface. GEMBench has many tricks up its sleeve... The Main Window --------------- The main window shows the test results on the left, these will initially be all zero, and the various options on the right. To start the tests press the Return key. When the tests are completed the results will be displayed in the format: Test time took in seconds ratio If you run the test on a basic machine you should get 100%, this means your ST/TT/Falcon is running in its normal, terribly slow state. In addition you can run a single test by clicking on its name or the keyboard shortcut. On the bottom right you will see the hardware reference box. Here you can choose which system you are comparing your setup to. There is a wide choice ranging from an ST without a blitter to a Falcon with an FPU and Blitter or a TT running at 16 colours. Almost every possible combination is available. The first button invokes a popup menu where you choose the base machine. Below it are two buttons for BliTTer, FastRAM or FPU. WHich is actually available and active depends on the base machine. The second button is normally the Blitter button but on a TT it changes to FastRAM. This does NOT change the blitter state, it lets you compare your system with an ST with or without a blitter. The third button lets you compare your setup to a system with a Floating Point Unit (FPU) if enabled. All TTs have an FPU so if you select a TT this button will be selected for you as all TTs have an FPU installed. To compare your system to a MegaSTE with a Blitter and FPU for example, first select the MSTE from the popup menu, then select the Blitter and FPU buttons. Below these are the screen mode buttons. Depending on the machine you may compare your system to an STE at medium res, for example, or to a Falcon running at 256 colours. * Note that the old Mega ST is considered an ST. * All refernces are to the very latest TOS version for each model. ST - v1.04, STE - v1.62, MegaSTE - v2.06, TT - v3.06, Falcon - v4.04. * Falcon references are based on a VGA monitor running at the standard resolutions available from the desktop. * The program SLOWFAST.TOS is provided for TT users. Use it to change the program flags. There are two options, FastRAM or ST RAM. If you want to run GEM Bench in FastRAM simply type Y at the prompt. Any other key will set it to run in ST RAM. Save and Print These menu items can be used to print or save the test results to disk. A small box will appear where you can type in details of the test. The program will automatically enter the machine type, blitter state and TOS version as well as screen resolution and other system info. System Info The System Info menu item displays a dialog with system information and also tells you which machine configuration you are comparing your system to. Blitter You can use this to switch the blitter on and off, you will be surprised to see the difference it makes, especially on 8MHz STs and STEs. If your ST has no blitter this item will be disabled. On the Falcon it is not possible to switch the blitter off so the button will always be selected. If you have NVDI on the Falcon you can use this button to toggle the blitter state, otherwise it has no effect. MiNT Priority The Priority button only has effect when running under MultiTOS and lets you adjust the priority level MultiTOS allocates to GEM Bench. Positive values increase priority and negative numbers decrease it. The value range is -20 to +20. This sets ABSOLUTE priority level as opposed to delta (relative) values. Statistics The statistics box is for a quick evaluation, the Display entry is simply an average of all graphics tests. The CPU entry is a simple average of the other tests. The bottom result is an UNWEIGHTED average of all tests. It is important to note that these results do not necessarily reflect reality. It is much better to look at the specific tests and see which ones matter to you. For example you may get an excellent result with the VDI graphics test which will affect the statistics. If all you use your computer for is plain text this result is not relevant to you. Instead, you should look at tests like VDI text and scrolling. The Menu Bars ------------- GEMBench uses two menu bars, one at the top of the screen and another inside the main test window. The menu bars are almost identical and which one is used is entirely up to you. The window menu bar is more convinient under a multi-tasking environment. Desk About - This displays some info about GEM Bench. File Open (Control+O) - Opens the main window. Save (Control+S) - Save test results. Print (Control+P) - Print test results. Quit (Control+Q) - Quit GEM Bench. Test You can use these menu items to quickly test several functions in one go. These items are active whether the main window is open or not. Display (Control+D) - Run all display oriented tests. This includes all text, graphics, dialog and window tests. CPU (Control+C) - Run all CPU related tests - Integer division, Floating point math and memory access. All Tests (Control+A) - Run all tests. Technical Info -------------- This is a list of all the tests and how they are perfomed as well as information for the non-programmer. Dialogue Box - A complex dialogue box is drawn to screen. All form_dial calls are used except FMD_FINISH which is only used to clear the 'mess' at the end. VDI Text - This is the standard v_gtext call which is used by most programs to display text on screen. Text Effects - This test displays text using v_gtext while changing text attributes using vst_effects and text colour with vst_color. Small Text - This test displays the small system font. The size is changed using vst_point, the text is displayed using v_gtext. VDI Graphics - The test draws a rectangle and circle in replace mode, changing their position, fill pattern and colour before each draw. This is followed by v_pline in xor mode. The VDI primitives used are v_bar and v_ellipse and attributes changed are vsf_color and vsf_interior. GEM Window - This test creates a window then displays it. Uses the AES calls wind_create and wind_open and opens a window 640*400 or 640*200 pixels according to resolution. The window is then closed. This allows to compare an ST to a TT without having the TT open a larger window if a large monitor is used. Integer Division - Simply divides integers. Something every program does at some point. Float Math - Multiplies, divides and adds single and double precision numbers. Also calculates trigonometric functions and logarithms. Uses an FPU if one is installed. RAM and ROM access - Simply reads from RAM and ROM. Useful to show the benefits of FastRAM. ROM location is obtained via the BIOS so if you have TOS installed in RAM, the ROM test will be reading from RAM possibly affecting the speed. Blitting - The test draws a black box on screen then moves it along by saving the screen area to memory then writing it back with a slight offset. VDI Scroll - Uses the standard vro_cpyfm to scroll text in a window. This function is used by most text editors and word processors. Justified Text - Uses v_justified while constantly changing justification parameters. VDI Enquire - This runs through various system enquiries, again most GEM programs use these calls. New Dialogs - This test displays a buffered modern style flying dialogue box. ============================================================================ Thanks to Graeme Rutt, Douglas Hilliard (for that cute stopwatch icon), Roger Davies, Eric Northwood, Joe Connor, John Eason, Iain Laskey, Andrew J Lee, Don Maple, Alistair Bodin, Mark Webster, Andre Willey, Gunter Minnerup, Charles Smeton, everyone at HiSoft, John Cordes, Kevin Fason, Daron Brewood, Darek Mihocka, Karl Brandt, Chris Goodwin, Gordon Drayson, Gair Shields, Darryl Piper and everyone else on CIX for their help. Sorry if I forgot somebody, this list is long... Ofir