Author: Aaron Gordon
Date: 12:53:42 11/11/03
Go up one level in this thread
On November 11, 2003 at 14:06:48, Dann Corbit wrote: >On November 11, 2003 at 09:49:45, Aaron Gordon wrote: > >>On November 11, 2003 at 09:39:20, Jorge Pichard wrote: >> >>>On November 11, 2003 at 08:50:53, Aaron Gordon wrote: >>> >>>>It would be better had they used a quad or 8-way Opteron running 2GHz or more. >>>>From some testing I've done in the past you can figure a single Opteron 2GHz == >>>>a P4-3.6GHz in Fritz 8 (32bit mode). So, a Quad Opteron 2.0 == Quad P4-3.6. >>>>Almost 30% faster, plus the memory bandwidth available would probably push it a >>>>bit over that with large hash table sizes. 8-way Opteron 2.0 would of course be >>>>like 8 p4-3.6's (however with some 40gb/s+ memory bandwidth available depending >>>>on bus speed). >>>> >>>>Why not use the best hardware? Seems like if you'd want to promote your new >>>>'awesome' chess program you'd want to give it the best chance of winning. >>> >>> >>>If you were in charge of advertising the AMD company, you probably would have >>>offered the Fritz team as well as Mr. Kasparov a good deal of money to select a >>>Quad 4-way Opteron running at 2GHz or more, but it seems that Intel made a >>>better proposal knowing how much revenue it can bring their company. >>> >>>PS: Remember how good IBM stocks did after the 1997 match against Mr. Kasparov, >>>it is NOT just a match, it is a well promoted Intel advertisement Show, shown >>>all over the World by ESPN. >>> >>> >>>Jorge >> >>I'd prefer a stronger machine and more potential money rather than a slower >>machine and more money now.. but thats just me. :) When stuff like this happens >>there is always a voice in the back of my head going, "If it was run on THIS >>instead, what would have happened?". 8-way Opteron could potentially pull 70 or >>so elo (if you figure 50 per doubling) over the quad xeon. More if you consider >>it could be 64bit. This at this point is probably not realistic as I'm sure >>Franz and whomever else would need a good bit of time to produce a nice 64bit >>engine. >> >>Better to have focused on getting the engine tuned right now for this particular >>match.. which of course they did. Now, hopefully, they can turn their attention >>to an Opteron(64bit) version of Fritz.. unless of course Intel has stuffed >>entirely too much money up their you know what. :) >> >>Again this is where you wonder, "could that extra 70 elo have helped Fritz draw >>this particular game, avoiding losing to Kasparov?".. or.. whichever way you >>want to do it. Just doesn't seem right not using the best available.. not as >>interesting IMHO. > >The 8-way boxes are pretty much all beta stage (except for HP Alpha machines and >stuff like that). While 64 bit Linux has been released, the commercial chess >programs run on Win32 systems. Win64 is beta right now. Probably, it will take >some work to port 32 bit systems to 64 bits to really get the full benefit, >anyway. I imagine that the spectacular crafty numbers Eugene posted were using >the compiler in 64 bit mode and running on 64 bit windows (both in beta stage >right now) > >All beta systems carry considerable risk of failure. I think their choice of >hardware is exactly what I would have chosen, if I could pick anything I wanted >to run a 32 bit Windows program on. They will have had plenty of time to test >and prepare on a system such as that, and they would know it is rock-solid >reliable. Trying to eak out a few more ELO on a shaky system would not make >good business sense. > >Two years from now, all contests of this nature will be on 64 bit hardware, >because it will be fully stable by then. Yes, which is why I'm sure they decided to stick with the 32bit stuff for now. I wouldn't want to trust a beta copy of Win64 with an event this big. However, they COULD have selected a solid, fast, Quad Opteron.
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