Apple’s iOS 4.3 includes a new JavaScript runtime engine. Since NS Basic/App Studio works by translating BASIC code into JavaScript for execution, we tested to see what difference the new version makes.
| iOS 4.2.1 | iOS 4.3 | diff | |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 4 | 180,428 | 282,674 | +57% |
| iPad | 208,276 | 264,293 | +27% |
| iPad 2 | 437,853 |
The test is a simple one: how many times can you go through a loop, adding a number each time, in 1 second? It’s useful as a test of straightline processing power, but as in any benchmark, will not necessarily indicate what will happen to a particular app. Reports in other media are that the real world results are often much better than we found.
Still, the marvel is that more than quarter of a million statements can be executed in less than a second on a handheld device, be it iOS or Android. This really expands the types of apps NS Basic/App Studio can be used for.
Update: As of 4.3.0, this improvement only appears in apps running directly in the browser. It has not been extended to apps saved to the home screen yet.
Here are a couple of interesting links if you like this kind of benchmark:
SpeedTest is the standard benchmark we have been using on many devices. Results are shown for almost 50 devices. (The slowest was the BlackBerry Pearl, at just 671!) It also shows some desktop results. Let us know if you have some numbers to add!
Win CE Benchmarks shows the speed of NS Basic, eVB and .NET on various devices. Tops is NS Basic/CE on a souped up PocketPC 2003 at 55,511. As a bonus, results are also shown for a variety of desktop systems.