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Subject: Re: Floating point VS Integer Math.

Author: Dan Newman

Date: 14:18:26 05/15/98

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On May 15, 1998 at 02:10:11, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>
>On May 15, 1998 at 00:31:19, David Blackman wrote:
>
>>However floating point add, subtract and compare will be slower than
>>integer add, subtract and compare on just about anything. The inside
>>loops of chess programs tend to do a lot of add, subtract and compare,
>>but very little multiply and divide. So integer arithmetic is probably
>>the best choice for chess. It would be different for graphics.
>
>Or even *no* multiplies and divides.
>
>bruce

I avoid integer multiplies like the plague, however I do use them in
one place: updating the history table.  I stole this idea from Crafty.
I just add the square of the depth remaining (+= depth * depth) to
the table entry.  This keeps the entries from blowing up on truly
deep searches.  I had been using += (1 << depth), which I think I got
from Schaeffer's paper.  IIRC, when the depth gets to about 30 or 31
the 32-bit table entries start getting messed up.

-Dan



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