FAST - How to speed up your hp48, V1.1
From: detlef@mwhh.hanse.de (Detlef Mueller)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.hp48
Date: 7 Oct 91 02:35:18 GMT

Hi ...

Anybody left who says `you can't speed up the HP48` ??? Yes ... ? Ok,
here is how to do it, version 1.1 .

Displaying the display :-] is time consuming. The display refresh logic
steal about 11% of the CPU time from the Saturn, so switch off the LCD
and all is fine.

The following program turns the display off (that's the disadvantage of
this program, you can't see what's going on), executes the object in the
first stack level (sorry, no tagged object), then turns the display on
again.

The entry to turn the display off is not supported in ENTRIES.A (there
is a entry named 'DispOff', it switches off the display 'dirty'. I used
this entry in version 1.0 of FAST). 'CleanDispOff' is used by the OFF
routine (hard to find :-).

If your program terminates and the display is still off, switch the HP48
off (blind) then on again. This should reenable the display.

IMO you can further speed up your programs, if you activate the commented
lines in FAST.S because timer interrupts are time consuming, too.
I've not tested this!  Do it at your own risk!

To generate FAST, put the listings of FAST.S and FAST.M in the appropriate
files, then invoke the following commandlines at the MesS-DOS prompt:

	rplcomp fast.s fast.a
	sasm -e -N fast.a
	sload -H fast.m

Bye,
	8-), Detlef

+-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
|       `You mean this isn't        |             Detlef Mueller            |
|          the afterlife ?`         |          detlef@mwhh.hanse.de         |
| Arthur in THGTTG, part II, p. 78  |...!uunet!mcsun!unido!mcshh!mwhh!detlef|
+-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------+

[Note: Not only do programs run faster in FAST mode, but they actually run
 using less power per second (since driving the display takes juice).  Using
 FAST will extend the life of your batteries.  See DRAIN2.DOC in the POSTINGS
 directory on this disk for further battery drain information.  -jkh-]