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Subject: Re: Dead Wrong!

Author: Ed Schröder

Date: 02:44:36 07/22/00

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On July 21, 2000 at 22:27:45, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On July 21, 2000 at 19:16:41, Ed Schröder wrote:
>
>>On July 21, 2000 at 15:29:26, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>If you don't mind I only answer those points not earlier discussed
>>(enough) to avoid ending up in endless circles.
>>
>>
>>>>2) DB is no brute force program (as you always have claimed). Quote
>>>>from the IBM site:
>>>>
>>>>    "Instead of attempting to conduct an exhaustive "brute force"
>>>>    search into every possible position, Deep Blue selectively
>>>>    chooses distinct paths to follow, eliminating irrelevant searches
>>>>    in the process."
>>>>
>>>>I always said this after I had seen the log-files. It beats me how you
>>>>always have claimed the opposite on such a crucial matter presenting
>>>>yourself as the spokesman of Hsu even saying things on behalf of Hsu
>>>>and now being wrong on this crucial matter?
>>>
>>>Sorry, but you are wrong and are interpreting that wrong.  DB uses _no_
>>>forward pruning of any kind, this _direct_ from the DB team.  The above is
>>>referring to their search _extensions_ that probe many lines way more deeply
>>>than others.  If you want to call extensions a form of selective search, that
>>>is ok.  It doesn't meet the definition used in AI literature of course, where
>>>it means taking a list of moves and discarding some without searching them at
>>>all.
>>
>>The quoted text describes DB as a selective program, no brute force. I
>>don't see how you can explain it otherwise. The text is crystal clear.
>>
>>
>
>Why don't you simplyh ask Hsu, or are you afraid you will get an answer
>you don't want?  DB was _always_ brute force.  Every document written about
>DB said this.  The paragraph you are quoting is talking about "selective
>search extensions" which was one of the real innovations from the Deep Thought
>development (singular extensions, later used by Lang, Kittinger, Moreland,
>Hyatt, who knows who else).

I disagree. Extensions are always selective. Some moves are extended
some don't and that makes that extensions is a selective process by nature.
So the text (about brute force) can't be related to the previous sentence
(about extensions). They made 2 statements (not one).


>You _know_ they were basically in the same mold as the rest of us.  This has
>_never_ been in doubt.
>
>If you do doubt it, just ask the horse's mouth, since you don't want to believe
>me.
>
>
>
>>
>>>This _was_ deep thought.  It was doing about 2M nodes per second in 1995,
>>>according to Hsu.
>>
>>Then Hsu is wrong or the IBM site.
>>
>>Quote from the IBM site:
>>
>>    "Deep Thought acquires 18
>>     additional customized chess
>>     processors and emerges as
>>     Deep Thought II. It now is
>>     running on an IBM/6000 and
>>     can search six to seven million
>>     chess positions per second.
>
>
>That was correct.  But as I said (after a conversation with Hsu) it _never_
>really ran at that speed.  The few times they tried to use all the hardware,
>things didn't work out very well (this was mainly used during the Fredkin
>stage II matches, where they physically shipped the machine (a single Sun
>workstation + the VME cards) to remote locations.
>
>Hsu has said point blank, the most recent version of DT was searching about
>2M nodes per second.  I take him at his word, since he built the thing...

The only thing that counts here is the contradicting data:

1991: IBM 7 million
1995: Hsu 2 million

Now who to believe that's the question.



>>
>>6 to 7 million NPS. This in the year 1991 so 4 years before the Hong Kong
>>event. So according to Hsu and/or IBM in 1995 the machine dropped from 7 to
>>2 million NPS?? One might expect the opposite, a faster machine after
>>4 years but not a slower one. Something ain't right with these numbers.
>
>
>Simply email Hsu...  it was his box.  He can tell you what you want to
>know...
>
>
>>
>>
>>>Fine.  Again, Hsu is a liar.  If that is what you want to think.  Here is
>>>an excerpt from him that might help:
>>>
>>>===============================================================================
>>>Web-based DB Jr uses a single card, a random opening book (including
>>>fairly bad lines) and one second per move (a quarter of which is used
>>>in downloading the evaluation function, and the search extensions are
>>>more or less off due to the very short time).  It probably plays at around
>>>2200, which is usually sufficient to play against players in random marketing
>>>events.  Repetition detection is also turned off (The web-based program
>>>is stateless).  The playing strength of "DB Jr." spans a quite wide range,
>>>depending on the setup.  The top level, which we used for analysis and
>>>in-house training against Grandmasters, is likely in the top 10 of the
>>>world.
>>>================================================================================
>>
>>I said the contradiction is in the private emails so you can't know.
>>
>>Ed
>
>
>No, but I believe from the above, which is also private email, there is
>absolutely no confusion in what "web DB Jr" was.  It is _very_ clear, and
>not open to misinterpretation, wouldn't you say??
>
>It was thrown together at the request of marketing guys. And "thrown together"
>is a pretty accurate description.  He says "2200".  In another email he said
>"2200 might have been optimistic"...

Every time it is something else. I stopped believing it.

Ed



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