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Subject: Re: Equal platform competition

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:45:58 04/23/05

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On April 23, 2005 at 11:48:29, Mike Byrne wrote:

>On April 23, 2005 at 11:40:11, Steven Edwards wrote:
>
>>On April 22, 2005 at 21:27:22, Tony Petters wrote:
>>
>>>I hope they force every program to use one CPU with an equal amount of RAM,
>>>otherwise, the games are not even !
>>
>>Those with long memories will recall an effort from the late 1970s promoting the
>>idea of equal platform competition as reported in the ICCA Newsletter (the
>>grandfather of the ICGA Journal).  Tony Marsland was a main proponent; there
>>were plenty of critics.
>>
>>With the need to enforce identical operating systems, compilers, CPU, RAM, etc.
>>among all potential participants is impractical.  For one, I refuse to develop,
>>test, or run my program using any Microsoft products; others may feel the same
>>way towards Apple, GNU, Linux, Intel, AMD, Motorola, or whatever.
>>
>>But here's a half serious proposal that could work:
>>
>>Allow each participant a fixed limit on the amount of energy used per game.
>>This can be done by attaching an integrating wattmeter between the entrant's
>>power supply and the rest of its system.  A limit of one megajoule would be
>>sufficient to run a modest system for an hour or two.  Quad CPU competitors
>>might have to go into power save mode instead of pondering.  Huge rackmount
>>systems would have to be very good at blitz.
>
>Excellent -- recognizes that equal platfroms are not possible -- but does
>propose a solution that levels the playing field and also encourages innovation
>in extracting the most out of the world's limited resournces.  A very green and
>earth friendly suggestion.


It actually would not work.  Which would you want to use, 1 PIV xeon at 130
watts dissipated, or say 512 CMOS processors at 30 watts total?

It still turns into a "hardeware war" no matter how you cut it.  And eliminating
one or more architectures can never be a good thing...



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