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Subject: Re: How much did the hardware contribute?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 21:16:53 07/18/00

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On July 18, 2000 at 23:32:41, Albert Silver wrote:

>On July 18, 2000 at 17:48:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On July 18, 2000 at 14:51:41, Albert Silver wrote:
>>
>>>On July 18, 2000 at 14:36:00, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>>
>>>>On July 18, 2000 at 13:39:01, Jerry Adams wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I doubt if DeepBlue with all it's billions of calculations per second could
>>>>>score much better than DeepJunior at Dortmund. Seem it is a bad day for the
>>>>>Advocates of "Hardware is everything" Theory. Deepblue could probally Easily
>>>>>Defeat DeepJr in a Match, but against humans the story is different. I hope
>>>>>programmers Continue to Develope Software and not sit back lazily waiting for
>>>>>Hardware to do all the work.
>>>>
>>>>When I saw the thread title I thought you might have gotten the title backwards,
>>>>since Junior had huge hardware at Dortmund.  But then I saw the reference to DB
>>>>and I said, "Oh, that."
>>>>
>>>>I think all that was proven here is that a computer can do well in a tournament
>>>>with GM's.  I haven't looked at all the games, but from the results it seems
>>>>like the computer belonged in the tournament.  That's a big thing.
>>>>
>>>>Nothing about DB is proven, because the DB matches were short, Kasparov was
>>>>stressed, and the computer arrived out of nowhere and vanished without a trace.
>>>>It could be a lot better or worse than we perceive it now, and we have no
>>>>practical way of knowing which.
>>>>
>>>>Junior at least seems to be willing to come out and play, and I commend Amir for
>>>>this.
>>>>
>>>>The fact is though that Junior was on some great hardware, so I don't know if
>>>>you are proving your point by bringing up the issue of hardware, or disproving
>>>>it.
>>>
>>>One way, though one would have to have the accurate move times to do so, would
>>>be to simply take an inferior machine and see if it is capable of finding the
>>>moves played in the games. One wouldn't be able to calculate any Elo ratings
>>>with this, but it would be interesting to see how many moves were made possible
>>>due to the hardware. If Amir has this available, I think it would be wonderful
>>>if he could post this (the time per move for both sides).
>>>
>>>                                         Albert Silver
>>>
>>
>>
>>Anecdotal evidence also suggests that hardware is very important.  Each time
>>I upgraded on ICC, from the P6/200, to the 4 X p6/200, to the quad xeon/450,
>>to the quad xeon/550...  GM players would comment on its newfound skill...
>>IE, "what did you do to it recently?  It has really improved...  etc..."
>>
>>And hardware would be the only change of any significance, and they could "feel
>>the difference..."
>>
>>I'd think an 8x700mhz machine would be very strong feeling...
>
>I have no doubt, but they are commenting on Blitz play for the most part. How
>big a difference would this represent in 40/2 as was the case for DJ? I'm sure
>it is _much_ stronger but I think that human players do a heck of a lot more
>catching up with more time on the clock.
>
>                                         Albert Silver



A couple of the ones I talk to regularly play some 15 15 and even 30 30 games
when no one is noticing.   Faster hardware just ramps up the tactical acuity a
good bit, and occasionally it will see something positional that it wouldn't
have seen without the extra depth...

>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>>bruce



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