Author: Roberto Waldteufel
Date: 02:18:33 06/27/98
Go up one level in this thread
On June 27, 1998 at 02:08:03, Ed Schröder wrote: >>Posted by Keith Ian Price on June 26, 1998 at 21:40:50: > >>Hello, Roberto, > >>When I talked to Hsu about this at the end of April, he said that IBM had no >>intention of selling the chess processors as a PC product, but that he was >>negotiating with them for the rights to the chips (1997 version), so that he >>could possibly market such a product. There's a lot of "ifs" there, though. I >>asked him some hypotheticals, such as: If there were a market for 1 million of >>these boards, at what price point do you think you could sell them? He answered >>$200. With a market of 10,000 that would double to $400. I agree with you that >>this would be a great thing to experiment with, and I believe even Vincent would >>shell out $400 real quick to test it. Hsu also said that his short eval took >>only one cycle, and his long eval took 8 cycles. Move generation took 4 cycles. >>The long eval was necessary in only 20% of the cases. > >It's my believe if things are done in the right way (have some ideas) Hsu >can easily sell 10,000 pieces, more likely 25,000 pieces if not 50,000. > >I do not sell competitive software myself but I surely will make an >exception if Hsu manage to enter the market with his chip. Everybody >should simply have it and the better sold the lower the end-user-price! > >- Ed - > > >>kp Hi Ed, Yes it sounds quite exciting for us chess programmers. I would certainly pay $400 for one of these boards. Maybe we should start to compile a list of interested people here at CCC. If Hsu realises that there is a good demand for his product, perhaps it will give him the encouragement to go ahead. It must be a risky proposition for him to sink a lot of his own money into producing the boards if he is not guaranteed enough sales to make a profit. I'm sure we all wish him every success - it's good to think that, after all that work done developing the chip, it may yet escape being shelved forever in the vaults of IBM. We may not be able to promise much, but I think that every promise to purchase must surely strengthen the chances that he will go ahead. Best wishes, Roberto
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.