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Subject: Re: utilization of computer resources by chess programs!!!

Author: KarinsDad

Date: 16:03:30 05/03/00

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On May 03, 2000 at 09:24:34, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On May 03, 2000 at 03:36:45, pavel wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>    there have been a recent debate like "thingie" about crafty "does better
>>utilization of computer" then fritz (or most program). In reply to that Bob
>>posted that it is not true , however the utilization should be allmost the same.
>>And i believed that too. But wasnt sure about it. I downloaded this program
>>called "taskinfo", (shareware) and i did a test on crafty and fritz running on
>>one cpu under fritz interface. As Bob said the utilization was more or less the
>>same, it didnt differ more than 3 to 4% for both programs. It wasnt stable once
>>it was 4% better on fritz the other time it was 3% better on crafty. But also
>>this differances was also very rare. the most frequent differances was .50%. So
>>you can see (Christophe) that crafty_doesnt_utilize_more
>>_of_the_computer_resources ;0. To be sure that its the same in all circumstances
>>i tried it under winboard (crafty and goliath) and also used other programs
>>(exchess,comet,TCB,chessmaster7000). and they are more or less the same.
>>just sharing info,
>>thanks
>>pavel
>>
>>ps, thus it mean that comp vs comp games are accurate in single cpu. If we
>>provide the same hash size, and everything else, wont it be the same for both
>>the programs? the only differance would be that in seperate CPU, programs would
>>play stronger, but in single cpu they might play comperably weaker.
>
>
>there are hidden problems.  IE fritz likes big hash.  Using one machine means
>it doesn't get it. because in theory, memory should be split 50-50 to be 'fair'.
>And this will favor the program that is better at using small hash tables.


I don't buy this memory theory.

A "fair" test is one of 50% cache for each side (cache memory being more
important) and 50% cpu cycles. But other resources should be based on what is
required to run the program. For example, if you need 100 MB for one program,
well, you'd better have 100 MB + OS requirements + other program requirements.
If you need 3GB for egtbs for one program, then you'd better have it.

Now, forcing resource allocation is a different issue. And, of course, there
will be a resource delay on both sides based on what the other side is doing (if
both sides are looking at their egtbs, then there will be a competition for head
location on the hard disk). So, you are correct that there will be hidden
problems (and a program could be penalized based on how it is coded since it
could assume it can grab a large portion of the cache to run in).

But I do not believe that spliting main memory 50-50 is required for a fair
test.

KarinsDad :)



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