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Acorn A4
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What's in the box? | The BBC Basic |
Rear view with an unusual DB9 connector for the power supply. |
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The desktop with the BogoMIPS result. To comapre, a TT/68030 at 32MHz gives 7,92. With a simple proportion, an ARM at 32MHz would be: 9,53 x 32 / 24 = 12,71 that is +60% of power compared to a CISC Motorola processor with the same frequency. Note the support for PC and Atari disk formats! |
To run the BBC Basic, you must open the task window and type *BASIC.
But this task can be automated!
On my disk unit IDEDisc4, I created a folder named BASIC in witch I will save my programs. I'm going to create a command file (BATCH) to run the BASIC with a double clic. Firts, run the EDIT application, and, on its icon in the task bar, clic on the middle button to open the menu. Select "CREATE" and "COMMAND". This opens an edition window. |
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There you type the following lines:
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You can edit your programs directly from the command line using line numbers. But, better, you can
use the EDIT application selecting "CREATE" and "BASIC". Here is my first program!
It computes an approximation of PI using the sum of 1/n². Note the first line, REM >... This allows you to save the program in the specified folder with SAVE without retyping its name each time. |
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There you see the file organization, my BASIC folder
with the command files and the basic programs. Note the file RunBASIC64! This runs the Basic 64, an evolution of the BASIC bringing a better precision in floating point calculations: the old 5 bytes format is replaced with the standard 8 bytes IEEE format. To run the Basic64, you'll have to create a separate command file, similar to the other, but replacing the line "BASIC" with "SYSTEM:MODULES.BASIC64" and that's all! |
Machine | Acorn A4/24MHz | Acorn A4/24MHz | MegaSTE 16MHz | MegaSTE 16MHz+FPU | Atari TT 48MHz+FPU | Tosh286 12MHz+FPU | Tosh286 12MHz+FPU | FalconCT60 100MHz |
Software | Basic64 | Basic | Forth no FPU | Forth + FPU | Forth + FPU | Qbasic + FPU | Qbasic + FPU | Forth + FPU |
bits/number | 64 | 40 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 32 | 64 | 64 |
PI (100000 iter) | 3,1415831 | 3,1415831 | 3.141583104 | 3.141583104 | 3.141583104 | 3.141583 | 3.141583104 | 3.141583104 |
Time (sec) | 21.09 | 4,25 | 46,96 | 16,01 | 4,25 | 20,59 | 21,20 | 1,79 |
Index 100*bits/sec/MHz |