Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 04:49:38 02/03/99
Go up one level in this thread
>Posted by HF on February 03, 1999 at 12:03:13: >>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? Each program when started gets its own memory pool (area). Of course when programs start to write in each others memory you get problems. This the suspect auto232, writing in Rebel's memory ruining data as well as the code. HIMEM.SYS is meant to prevent that. >>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? Nope. >>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. :-) That was 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? No it is not that. Wish it was true but it isn't. >>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? Rebel10.0c (with auto232) is currently running on 2 autoplayer pairs under Win98 and a third autoplayer pair is running under Win95. No incompatible problems noticed sofar. >I thought it would "capture" the commands directed to the serial port? To be more precise, the printer and the keyboard are connected to each other (re-directed). This allows chess programs to send moves to the printer and then the auto232 driver catches that move and send the move to the keyboard buffer of the other computer and vice versa. >>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. Yes, auto232 is a TSR program. It is started first (before a chess program is loaded) in order to catch all the moves and commands. I remember the CCL Mchess 7.1 case when Marty told me Mchess needs HIMEM.SYS. I was surprised then, now I understand better. But in the end the Rebel case has to be proven as I don't have the hard evidence yet. >>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? At that time the thought never crossed my mind. Ed Schroder >BTW this seems to be another reason to port Rebel to Windows. ;-) Harald, this is cruel :-)
This page took 0.01 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.