Author: Harald Faber
Date: 03:05:24 02/03/99
Go up one level in this thread
On February 03, 1999 at 05:11:11, Ed Schröder wrote: >It's about AUTO232 and its involved risks. The problem keeps me busy for >almost a half year by now and maybe some of you can enlighten me. >Ed Schroder > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >There will be at least a delay of one week for the release of Rebel10.0c >and maybe more. An estimated date for the release is set to February 15. > >Note that this easily might change too. As already written before the >Rebel10.0c update is mainly meant to fulfill my promise to include >the AUTO232 option again in Rebel10. > >About 5-6 months ago I seriously started to doubt the auto232 results >this due strange results only in auto232 games. I then came to the >conclusion something was very wrong with the auto232 driver (and >probably for a very long time already) and started to take the problem >very serious. > >I did many experiments. I like to mention 2 of the most shocking ones: > >Experiment (1) >Playing auto232 matches: >- Rebel10 (60 Mb hash) vs comp XYZ >- Rebel10 (13 Mb hash) vs comp XYZ >I noticed Rebel10 (13 Mb) scored a lot better than Rebel10 (60 Mb) > >I came to the conclusion that the auto232 driver might damage Rebel. Do you have an idea how that works? What harms Rebel? In which way? >Here is one game I found in the database. > >1. e2xa8=Q e7xh3ep >2. d2xh1 d7xh4ep Oops, this looks very strange. Possible that it was no auto232-phenomenon but a bug in saving the game? >I never have seen such a crazy thing. A small wonder the auto232 >match still continued and didn't crash. I am very curious getting the whole game. :-) >Experiment (2) >Based on the theory that auto232 damaged Rebel (writing in Rebel's >memory) Tel me if I am right thinking that Rebel in autoplayer mode plays different than in normal tournament games without autoplayer mode because of some lines of code you implemented for memory (learning?) effects? >At the moment experiment (3) is (just) started: >- Normal Rebel10 (maximum hash table) >- Make sure that HIMEM.SYS is loaded (just run auto232 from W95/98) Does auto232 work under W95/98? I thought it would "capture" the commands directed to the serial port? >Note that most auto232 lovers boot their PC in "safe mode" to get the >maximum speed and hash tables and I am no exception either. But >doing so HIMEM.SYS is *NOT* loaded in that case. I'll check this tonight at home if I use Himem or not for max. hash. >And here is what the documentation says about HIMEM.SYS: > > HIMEM is an Extended Memory Manager--a program that controls the > use of extended memory and HMA (High Memory Area). This to > prevent that (2) programs can use (write) the same memory at the > same time. > >Quite revealing. So this sounds OK, auto232 is a TSR program (right?) and Rebel is the other program so the use of HIMEM seems to be necessary. BTW AFAIK MCP also works with himem. >All in all we need some time to figure this all out and in order to release >an auto232 version that plays chess as the normal Rebel10 does and >is not handicapped by external drivers. >Ed Schroder Did you check this phenomenon also with Rebel9 or 8?
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