Creative Computing Benchmark: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:22, 15 March 2019

Revision as of 20:31, 15 March 2019

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==History==

The benchmark first appeared in the November 1983 issue of ''[[Creative Computing]]'' under the title "Benchmark Comparison Test".{{sfn|Ahl|1983|p=259}} In the article, Ahl was careful to state that it tested only a few aspects of the BASIC language, mostly its looping performance. He stated:

{{cquote|Likewise, ...the benchmark program presented here is not representative of the way computers are actually used; it measures only a few aspects of performance, and no one should buy a computer based solely on the results of these measures. Yet, the results provide some interesting comparative data.{{sfn|Ahl|1983|p=259}}}}

The initial results were provided for common machines of the era, including the [[Apple II]], [[Commodore 64]] and the recently-released [[IBM PC]]. Most of these machines ran some variation of the stock [[Microsoft BASIC]] and thus provided similar times on the order of two minutes, while the PC was near the top of the list at only 24 seconds. the fastest machine in this initial version was the [[Olivetti M20]] at 13 seconds, and the slowest was [[Atari BASIC]] on the [[Atari 800]] at 6 minutes 58 seconds.{{sfn|Ahl|1983|p=260}}