Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 09:05:29 12/14/00
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On December 14, 2000 at 10:36:08, Roy Eassa wrote: >If Genius 1.2 on the Palm is the best by far, yet it's based on a 1987 program, >I would think that a good Palm programmer (I know somebody who has apps on the >shelves of CompUSA) and an existing top-level PC chess programmer could >collaborate to make one that's quite a bit stronger. > >Would there be an adequate market for this? I wouldn't bet that you would come up with anything better... The Palm puts many limits on program strength. * tiny heap, so no hash tables * small storage, so no endgame databases and small opening books. * slow processor Richard Lang's Roma program was his last that didn't use hash tables, which means it is the acme of what he could produce for this hardware. His program is written in 68k assembly, which is another reason why it is so strong. And it embodies his many years of experience in programming slow dedicated computers (remember, at the time Roma was released, Richard's programs were dominating computer chess in the Mephisto line of computers). The only things you could improve upon might be recent advances in search techniques (such as null move). Unfortunately, most recent advances presume hash tables and deep searches (i.e. memory and processor speed to burn). Also, a root evaluation strategy (used by Morsch's Fritz and Kittinger's Novag Sapphire/Diamond) could also be successful on slow processors, since it increases raw search speed. That said... if you came up with a Palm program stronger than Genius, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. :) Ian
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