Author: Slater Wold
Date: 01:09:52 05/28/02
Go up one level in this thread
On May 28, 2002 at 03:30:53, Russell Reagan wrote: >Some of the 6-piece tablebases are over a gigabyte in size. Some of those files >take over a month to generate (assuming you even have hardware capable of >generating them in the first place), and there are still many more files to be >generated before the 6-piece tablebases are complete. > >So, I'm wondering how long we (we being Bob or whoever is doing this computing), >are going to continue generating these things. In a few years (or however long >it takes) when the 6-piece tablebases are complete, will we start on the 7-piece >tablebases? After those are complete many more years later, do we then start on >the 8-piece tablebases? > >It seems to me that eventually, since this problem will grow exponentially, that >it will cause a major problem somewhere down the line, because the size of hard >disks does not seem to be growing exponentially with respect to time. Eventually >we will get to the point where a single tablebase file will not fit onto any >hard disk. Eventually the exponential growth of the time it takes to produce the >files will grow beyond the computing power of the time. > >When that happens, will the tablebase generation continue on? Or will you look >at the problem and think, "well it took 30 years to generate the N-piece >tablebases, so it will take at least 10,000 years to generate the N+1-piece >tabelbases" and decide to stop? Or will you continue on in hopes that hardware >advances will help things move along more quickly? > >If you will eventually stop generation of the tablebases, when would you >estimate that will be? Not in years time, but after which level of tablebase >generation? After 8-piece tablebases are complete? Or 7-piece tablebases? Any >ideas? > >Russell What I (think) know: Eugene does all the TB creating on old MS Alpha boxes. You can actually make a TB a *LOT* smaller, 20% in some cases. However, most engines don't know how to read them in that format, and access is slowed quite a bit. It has been proven a few times that 6-man TBs don't make an engine "smarter", it just makes them play a prettier endgame. The 3/4/5's are really the only TBs you NEED to have.
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