F21 simulator

[jfox@xxxxxxxx (Jeff Fox)]

Dear MISC readers:

I reduced the price of the F21 simulator in the Ultra Technology
online store to 0 and made it a free item like the P21 simulator.
I also released version 1.1.  This version includes a number of
software upgrades to make assemble and simulate the same source
files as the F21 emulator.

There are several demos that run at impressive speed in the emulator
and run in the simulator also although more slowly. F21sim 1.1 does
not include real time updates to the simulated video display.  At
any time one can stop and view the simulated output of the F21.  The
next release will include real time display of video updates as in
the emulator but slower.   

The latest demo is a BMP file decode sent to my by Stas.  I can
decode the file of Stas' wife Inga to the screen in Paint or WinGif
on my machine at work and it takes about .5sec on my 120mhz Pentium.
The simulator reports that it takes F21 about 7M instructions and
best case of about .15sec.  The simulator only simulates a few thousand
F21 instructions per second so it takes it a while to decode the
image to the simulated F21 screen.  The F21 emulator is much faster and
does it in about 4 seconds on my machine.  It reminded me of how when
I first saw the jpeg decode I said to myself, "Netscape is faster."
Then I remembered that I was looking the emulator and that thought,
"Yes, the emulated F21 does not decode the image as fast as Netscape 
on this machine."

Enjoy,
Jeff Fox

www.ultratechnology.com