7 Oct
2004
7 Oct
'04
9:36 a.m.
Christian Henz wrote:
I think a huge point was (and is, for modern consoles)
the fixed hardware.
You can (or even have to) write your code 'straight to the metal' and optimize
it to take full advantage of every aspect of the hardware while never worrying
about different CPUs, graphic chips etc.
Plus, with the absence of an OS and multitasking you can give guarantees
about the timing of your code, up to a single clock cycle. And that is per
definition RT capability.
Well put, Christian. Indeed, even MS-DOS MIDI software ran with great
timiing precision, thanks to the total ownership of resources enjoyed by
the running program.
I'm curious: how good was the timing on an Amiga, which did have
multitasking in a very tight space ? I've only used Amiga software under
emulation, I have no experience with an Amiga machine.
The result has of course little to do with today's
general purpose computers
and operating systems.
Something's gained, something's lost... ;)
Best regards,
dp