Craig Finseth's Quick-and-Dirty HP95LX Timing Tests       posted to Comp.sys.handhelds 22 May 1991     32SII added 17 November 1991Part 1: as a calculatorProblem 1: TVM functions, using built-in TVM, initial conditions:n5 * 12i?/PV100,000PMT-2,000FV0solve for i [where applicable, it has been given a range of (0,0,0)]Problem 2: TVM functions, as above, but using this solver equation:(1-EXP(-n*LNP1(i/100)))*PMT*100/i+PV=-FV*EXP(-n*LNP1(i/100))The 32SII uses the equation as given in the manual: P*100*(1-(1+I/100)^-N)/I+F*(1+I/100)^-N+B(Due to limits in the 32SII's solver, initial values for I are .0001)Problem 3: Solver equation X^3=3^Xwhere applicable, X has been given a range of (50,50,50)----------Resultstime in seconds for problemmodel123-12C12.6-18C 2.1 7.141.3-27S 1.3 4.327.0-28S 7.917.8 [2]11.626.032SII 9.721.7-41CX[1]17.148SX 3.115.1 [2] 3.825.395LX  2 316[1] w/Advantage module[2] displaying intermediate results--------------------Problem 4: Plot the equation from problem 3 using AUTO ranging, xminof -2 and xmax of 4.  (28S does not support AUTO, a Y range of-1 to 1 is used.)----------Resultsmodeltime in seconds for problem 4pixelss/pixel-28S, plotting as written20.11370.1467 plotting X^3-3^X19.71370.143848SX, plotting as written26.41310.2015 plotting X^3-3^X23.61310.180295LX12180est0.0667------------------------------------------------------------Part 2: as an IBM PChardware:PC is an IBM PC/XT w/Microsoft Mach 10 cardTosh is a Toshiba T1000SEMeasurement A: Central Point Software PCTools version 4.21 system Info1.0 = "original IBM PC"Measurement B: "SYSINFO" program, origin unknown1.0 = "original IBM PC"Measurement C1: Freya (Emacs-compatible text editor) CPU-intensivecommand (Help: building table of bindings; makes extensive useof pointer arithmetic, function calls, table searching, andstring matching).  Measurement is time in seconds.Measurement C2: Measurement C1 converted to an increasing, normalizedscale.  Numerically: 26.8 / C1----------Resultsrating for measurementmodelABC1C2averagePC slow0.91.426.81.01.1PC fast2.21.910.32.62.2[1]Tosh slow1.251.117.01.61.3Tosh fast2.552.28.73.12.6[1]95LX2.5181.52.0[1] The doublings due to slow / fast change are consistent with thevendor's claims.  In both cases, the difference between slow and fastmodes is claimed to be a doubling of the clock speed.Conclusions:- Depending upon the problem, the 95LX is from 1 to 3 times the speedof a 48SX.- If you are doing CPU register-intensive work, the 95LX is indeed theclaimed 2.5 times an original PC.  If you are doing memoryaccess-intensive work, the 95LX slows somewhat.  This is possibly dueto the very low power RAM chips having a slower cycle time.