r> I don't think you'll see much of a speed improvement. On the old 8088s the 
r> string commands such as LODSB, STOSB, MOVSB were much faster, but now
"hand 
r> rolling" them discretely as above can be just as fast, sometimes faster.

As you will have seen before you get this message, I calculate
both the assembler combo and the C loop to come to to 8n, meaning
it is pointless to even convert it to assembler.  I had a quick
look at the 8088 timings, and it looked like the situation was
the same to me, ie the C loop is the same speed as the string
commands.

BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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