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matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 11662

Posted: 01:51pm 24 Jul 2026

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One of my favourite benchmarks is the calculation of the solar eclipse.

solar_eclipse.zip

The data I use to test with is:
12,1,2000
39,40,36
-104,57,12
1644
30

Running on a HDMI build at 378 MHz this takes 13.23 seconds

Converting this to Micropython 1:1

solar_eclipse_py.zip

This runs in 8.77 seconds at 378MHz!

but Micropython has a trick up its sleeve using the ulab library

solar_eclipse_ulab.zip

And now it runs in 7.44 seconds

For reference if I run the Basic code on a 480MHz STM32H743 which has H/W double precision floating point it takes 7 seconds

thwill

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Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4379

Posted: 02:06pm 24 Jul 2026

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Damn snakes, spoiling it for everyone, can't help but think that happened somewhere else

.

Tom

MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures

toml_12953
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Joined: 13/02/2015
Location: United States
Posts: 688

Posted: 02:51pm 24 Jul 2026

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matherp said One of my favourite benchmarks is the calculation of the solar eclipse.

solar_eclipse.zip

The data I use to test with is:
12,1,2000
39,40,36
-104,57,12
1644
30

Running on a HDMI build at 378 MHz this takes 13.23 seconds

Converting this to Micropython 1:1

solar_eclipse_py.zip

This runs in 8.77 seconds at 378MHz!

but Micropython has a trick up its sleeve using the ulab library

solar_eclipse_ulab.zip

And now it runs in 7.44 seconds

For reference if I run the Basic code on a 480MHz STM32H743 which has H/W double precision floating point it takes 7 seconds

I notice the BASIC version has a BASIC subroutine for matrix transpose. MMBasic has one built in. Would using the MATH subroutine be faster than the one written in BASIC?

PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2012

Posted: 03:12pm 24 Jul 2026

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BASIC code is the prettiest though

scruss
Senior Member

Joined: 20/09/2021
Location: Canada
Posts: 110

Posted: 01:30pm 25 Jul 2026

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MicroPython has a perfectly good math.atan2(), which will be faster than a hand-rolled equivalent.

MicroPython's complete lack of a useful sgn() function, however, is a pain.

I wonder how much faster it would be compiled with single-precision floating point. That's the norm for MicroPython

matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 11662

Posted: 01:36pm 25 Jul 2026

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It would be a lot faster, but, for example, that solar eclipse program simply fails. Any complex math needs double precision

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