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Reviews Section (introduction)

Vector 6:1, page 49

reviews performance

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 49

Reviews Section

introduction by Adrian Smith

Thanks to Jonathan Barman, Anthony Camacho and Jonathan Martin for completing three excellent reviews to a very tight schedule.

We have a much fuller technical review of the IBM APL2/PC product which will be carried in the next VECTOR. Unfortunately the twin constraints of space and time conspired to keep it out of this issue. Just for fun, here is a selection of the infamous ‘Smith Benchmarks’ as first seen in VECTOR Vol.1 No.4 page 55:

BENCHMARK              APL*PLUS/PC V.8        APL2/PC 32-BIT
---------              ---------------        --------------
⎕WA                         220K                  3.6M

+/V+V                        60                   <50
+/V*2                       350                   160
V+.×,M                      220                   110

+/S='T'                     550                   490
X←S∊'FAT'                   550                  1260

X←B∨B∧~B                    770                   <50

FN 1000                    5200                  6810

The tests were run on a PS/2 Model-70 (16 MHz) with 4Mbyte of memory and a maths co-processor fitted.