Author: David Blackman
Date: 08:03:24 07/07/01
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On July 06, 2001 at 20:43:05, Dann Corbit wrote: >On July 06, 2001 at 20:34:59, leonid wrote: > >>Hello! >> >>Recently somebody said that later this year we can expect Intel's 64 bits. It >>look like it is only possibility and nothing more, since Intel promiss this chip >>since 1997. Maybe somebody from you do have some fresh knowledge about possible >>appearance of 64 bits chip. > >COMPAQ (formerly DEC) in 1996 (or was it 1995?). >Unfortunately, the Alpha chip has been officially killed just recently. Even earlier. In my backward, third world country that DEC never even heard of, i used one in 1993. (I even had my chess program running on it that year. It was not impressive, but that was the fault of the program, not the hardware.) I think they came out a year or two before that. Dec actually had a 64 bit chip called the Titan back in the 1980s but i don't think it was ever sold to the public. MIPS/SGI also had 64 bit hardware in the early 1990s, but you had to wait to the late 1990s to get a 64 bit SGI OS. Sun had 64 bit hardware about 1996. And of course there were 64 bit mainframes and supers back in the 1970s (CDC and Cray, maybe others). By now just about every company that makes CPUs makes a 64 bit chip. AMD maybe the last of the big players, perhaps next year. Some of the cheap game consoles are 64 bit, and have been for 5 years or so. (eg Nintendo 64.) >Unfortunately, the Alpha chip has been officially killed just recently. This is not true. Intel, Compaq, and Samsung still bravely claim that Alpha will go on for many years to come. It's just that the most analysts don't believe them. >>Never mind if it will be Intel, AMD or some other >>company. Your personal idea about 64 bits influence on chess programming is very >>welcomed. I think people will look carefully at 64 bit data structures such as the rotated bit-boards used in Crafty. I don't think this will be a major revolution. After all Crafty is ok on 32 bit hardware. But there should be small advantages for chess to 64 bits. >Intel is shipping I64 stuff now. Yes. Expensive hot and slow, and the compilers are flakey, but at least they are selling real 64 bit hardware now.
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