Author: Chris Whittington
Date: 06:54:08 10/17/97
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On October 17, 1997 at 05:42:11, Bruce Moreland wrote: >On October 17, 1997 at 03:01:10, Chris Whittington wrote: > >>Try it from the point of view of the majority who are going to run on K6 >>233's provided by the organisers. >> >>Some of these people think they are in with some sort of chance to win, >>they think the program they've been working on all year might have >>something (I exclude myself from this list, I don't think CSTal will >>win). > >Of course you also need to criticize those who are bringing 300 mhz >PII's, and whatever else people manage to scrape up. And you might also >point out that this happens every year. Last year I brought a Pentium >Pro 200 mhz machine to Jakarta because I knew that these machines were >going to blow the hell out of the supplied Pentium 133's. The machine I >brought last year was approximately 2.3 times faster than the supplied >machine, this year maybe <= 1.8 times (with my program in both cases). > >I wasn't the only one to bring a machine last year. There were several >Pentium Pro 200's, one Pentium 200 (Fritz, they went faster on this than >on a Pro), and I think that the Nimzo guys even over-clocked theirs to >220 or 233. The one major 133 mhz hero at the last event was Virtual >Chess (actually maybe he brought a 166, I can't remember), but Pascal >Tang managed to borrow a 200 for the playoff with Fritz (and maybe for >the speed event, I think he might have used Crafty's machine). So the argument boils down to: Others do it, so its ok, more than ok, for me as well. Just supposing we collectively created a new title: WMCC-PC-Champion. We could do this. It could have cachet .... Would you then be persuaded to run on one of the fast PC's instead ? So we could make the tourney a 'fair' platform one as a result .... ? Probably we'ld need to get Bob to agree as well ... Chris > >The year before, I didn't bring a machine, and I had to use one of the >120's supplied by Peacock, while Richard Lang had a 133 (probably with >more and better memory, who knows), also supplied by Peacock. I asked >why he got a faster one and I was told that he had made a "special >arrangment with the sponsor". There were other machines brought by >competitors as well, and we also had Sun sponsoring the event, so there >were Sun work-stations all over the place, which were faster than the >Peacocks. I think there was maybe one team who brought their own 100 >mhz machine to that event (I don't know why), but other than that, I was >on the rock-bottom hardware at that event. > >I also saw some of the teams at Hong Kong bring their own (faster) PC's >despite the fact that nice PC's were supplied (I brought my own, only >because the organizers wouldn't guarantee that there would be a PC there >for me, because they initially left me off the list of people requesting >hardware). I think that Frans Morsch brought a very nice (for that >time) 120 mhz machine to that event. I had a 100 mhz machine (it was >the machine from my office at Microsoft, I got a VP to say I could take >it). I think the supplied machine may have been a 90. > >I'm sure that this all goes further back, but I don't go further back, >so I don't know first-hand. > >What I learned from all of this is that part of the competition is >organization. Dark Thought has always been great at this. They >achieved a close relationship with DEC, and have brought DEC hardware to >every event that I have attended, and I would be surprised if they have >ever had to pay anything for their hardware. > >Other teams, this year, have also managed to get hardware sponsorship. > >I am not good at this kind of thing. Last year I tried to get Gateway >to sponsor me and they sent me some key rings and pencils to give away. >I still have some. I couldn't even get any T-shirts, much less a >computer. > >This year I decided to at least try to be a little smarter. I noticed >one of the Crafty's on ICC was going at a completely outrageous speed, >and I asked the operator what he was using. He told me, and I learned >that I could go fast without paying twenty thousand bucks, so I ordered >one. I figured that I would have a chance against whatever Dark Thought >appeared with this year, but they scored again with this Kryotech thing. > >>Only somebody is apparently turning up with a 750 MHz alpha, and Bruce >>with his 10,000,000 GigaHertz machine. > >I am bringing a 533 mhz Polywell. I think it is possible I will be able >to wrangle one of these Kryotech 767's as well, but maybe all I will get >is key rings, we will see. > >>So now, five guys, ten guys, suddenly have these good winning chances >>much reduced. Not becuse their programs have suddenly changed, not >>because they did something wrong; but because two (?) of the strong >>programmers decided to put themselves way out in front with this special >>hardware advantage. > >Three or four Alphas. At least three PII/300's. The PII/300's may not >be as fast as the Alphas (probably not, but I haven't tested one), but >they are the best x86 you can get now, so obviously someone is trying >pretty hard to compete in this area. > >It's an open-hardware event, Chris. If you want to take advantage of >the hardware provided by the sponsor, fine, but otherwise you can bring >your own. But the provided hardware is quite likely always going to be >a notch below the best you can get. > >It is an advantage to have a faster machine. I would definately like to >have the fastest machine, no doubt about it. But it is not a crushing >advantage. I have been using the 533 for a month or so, and it has lost >numerous games against programs on weaker hardware. I want to win, but >I am not betting on Ferret to win. I think that having a 233 mhz K6 >will increase everyone's tactical awareness markedly, and so you will >see more examples of mid-pack programs beating or drawing front-pack >programs than you did last year. > >>I see this as both selfish and self-advancing at others expense. > >I see that evaluating and acquiring hardware is another aspect of the >competition, along with writing a good (and in this case portable) >program, and building a good opening book. You can devote as much >effort to any of these areas as you wish, it is part of the competition. > >Last year I learned from Dark Thought to be better about acquiring good >hardware. > >bruce
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