Author: Dave Gomboc
Date: 12:57:30 06/15/99
Go up one level in this thread
On June 15, 1999 at 15:25:07, Eugene Nalimov wrote: >On June 15, 1999 at 15:03:43, KarinsDad wrote: > >>On June 15, 1999 at 13:38:16, leonid wrote: >> >>>On June 15, 1999 at 10:15:18, David Blackman wrote: >>> >>>>On June 15, 1999 at 07:06:38, leonid wrote: >>>> >>>>>Hi! >>>>> >>>>>In this year, presumably, 64 bits Intel chip should be produced. It >>>>>expected to be more that attractive - 128 registers each 64 bits wide. >>>>>Do you know something about it? When it will hit the market? >>>>> >>>>>Leonid. >>>> >>>>The architecture has been disclosed. You can get it from somewhere on the intel >>>>website (over 1MB PDF). It looks pretty weird. At the same clock speed, i >>>>suspect it will be faster than anything else. But it might turn out to be hard >>>>to make at fast clock speeds. The public documents i've seen give no hints about >>>>how they will implement it, when it will hit the market, etc. >>>> >>>>Past attempts to make similar architectures were huge flops. (There were quite a >>>>few in the late 1980s.) But Intel has more resources, and technology has >>>>improved a lot, so who knows? >>>> >>>>I suspect most of it's advanced features won't be a big help to chess programs >>>>unless the programmers are extremely clever. >>> >>>I think otherwise. I have the impression that this chip could be of >>>incredible help in the chess programming. For this I see 2 reasons: >>> >>>1) 128 registers and no more meager, around ten, registers of present CPU. >>> Many of those new registers can be used for the variables of quick access. >>> >>>2) Each register is 64 bits wide. This goes in miraculous coincidence with >>> the chess board that is composed of 64 squares. >>> >>>And at the end, one small additional advantage. Very often in the game we >>>must save the chess board position far later recall. Now this will be done >>>at double speed. More I think about the 64 bits computer, more I am eager >>>to reach it for first tryal. >>> >>>Leonid. >> >>You may be correct, but there are some other considerations: >> >>1) The compilers will not be able to take advantage of the new registers/64 bits >>for 6-12 months until after the chip is released. Porting the Alpha compilers >>will not work (different registers, etc.). >> >>2) The motherboard manufacturers will be behind as well. Also, you should be >>EXTREMELY careful about which motherboard you use with such a chip. >> >>Therefore, chess programmers will not be able to take real advantage of such as >>chip for at least a year and possibly a year and a half until after it is >>released. >> >>KarinsDad :) > >My prediction is that you'll be able to use 64-bit MSVC immediately after first >IA-64 bit (Merced) will be released. At least I can use it long before that :-). >So, you'll be able to recompile program like Crafty with only minor >modifications. > >I agree that second generation IA-64 compilers will be better. But even first >generation compilers will be able to produce good code - chess programs are very >easy for optimizing compilers (no virtual calls, large functions, predictable >access to structures, etc.) And IA-64 contains a lot of concepts that will help >chess programs immediately - e.g. predications, speculations, safe prefetching, >large register file (so you can load entire board representation there), etc. > >Eugene And hardcore programmers can prepare their assembly code for Merced already too. :-) Dave
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