Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Opionion needed:Zobrist type 1 error

Author: Heiner Marxen

Date: 12:19:29 06/30/00

Go up one level in this thread


On June 30, 2000 at 13:41:04, TEERAPONG TOVIRAT wrote:

>Hi,
>
>For my curiosity I want to estimate the incidence of Zobrist type 1
>error (different positions having the same hash value).
>
>1. Could anyone tell me how many possible positions in chess?
>The exact value is not so important but the estimated value should be
>known. I don't have any idea to calculate it.
>Let it =P.
>
>2.Let H= number of total hash values eg. for 64 bit hash table
>H=2^64.
>
>3.Suppose the positions distribute evenly onto their corresponding
>signature so that every hash value has almost the same number of
>positions. The average number of  positions sharing the same hash
>value is = P/H.
>
>4.After the 1st position hits on the table,the chance that the next
>position will have the same hash value(Zobrist type 1 error)
>= (P/H-1)/(P-1).
>
>5.After the N th position hit on the table, the chance of Zobrist type 1
>error = N*(P/H-1)/(P-N).
>
>6.In chess hash table,I expect 1 is relatively much less than P/H
>and N is much less than P. So, the equation in (5) = N*(P/H)/P
>= N/H.
>
>7.Let's assume that after 1million positions are stored in the 32 bit
>hash table then the chance of type 1 error  = 1million/2^32  (from (6))
>approximately = 1/4200 which is unacceptably high. That 's why
>every one recommends 64 bit hash table instead. In case of 64 bits
>the chance = 1million/2^64  which is about one in 16 million million.
>
>8.Conclusion: There are 3 factors affecting the incidence of Zobrist
>type 1 error  1.N (number of entry occupied) 2. H(number of hash value))
>3. the number of positions of any hash value(P/H).
>
>Do you agree with my hypothesis???

Being ment as approximations your calculations look good to me.

The influence of 3. P/H is unclear for me, except that H << P
(i.e. H is much smaller than P).  If P/H would not be much larger
than 1 we would not need a hash function, at all: we would just
use the key itself.

>Thanks for any comments
>Teerapong

Heiner



This page took 0 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.