DOS ain't dead

testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator (Emulation)

posted by bocke, 02.05.2026, 00:40

> I'm on the wrong machine right now, so I don't have precise benchmarks. And
> I tested the emulator under OpenBSD (i386) on a jump drive. Note that I'm
> more interested in estimated 8086 speed. Obviously "native" speed is less
> noticeable.
>

I am also interested in those benchmarks. But don't really have a machine to test it. Beside maybe HP 200 LX, but that's 80186 class machine.

It does have some sense that a86 is faster. It's likely written in assembly. The other assemblers you compared against are written in C.

I am thinking aloud: you might get better result with those by trying to compile them with a different compiler if the source is not too modern. Or with modern DOS compilers with optimization options (GCC-IA16?). That might make them faster.

Complete thread:

• testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 29.04.2026, 05:41 (Emulation)
  • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Oso2k, 29.04.2026, 16:56
    • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 30.04.2026, 02:45
  • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 01.05.2026, 13:11
  • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 01.05.2026, 13:23
  • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 02.05.2026, 00:40
    • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - rr, 02.05.2026, 16:00
      • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 02.05.2026, 20:52
    • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 07.05.2026, 13:33
      • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - RayeR, 07.05.2026, 15:38
        • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 08.05.2026, 15:22
      • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 10.05.2026, 05:38
  • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Khusraw, 03.05.2026, 12:56
    • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 08.05.2026, 04:39
      • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 08.05.2026, 14:49
        • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 09.05.2026, 09:58
          • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - bocke, 16.05.2026, 00:27
            • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Rugxulo, 16.05.2026, 05:05
      • testing speed of DOS assemblers under djl's 8086 DOS emulator - Khusraw, 12.05.2026, 12:29