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Subject: Re: BORIS Chess Computer

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 10:20:30 05/30/02

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On May 30, 2002 at 09:07:32, James T. Walker wrote:

>On May 30, 2002 at 02:09:19, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On May 29, 2002 at 23:41:57, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>On May 29, 2002 at 23:32:36, Timothy J. Frohlick wrote:
>>>
>>>>Joshua,
>>>>
>>>>Boris,the talking chess computer originally came with its own NiCad battery pack
>>>>(UPS) and operated also via a 120 volt wall transformer.  It had a red mini neon
>>>> display and a keypad for alphanumeric position entry.  Boris came with a
>>>>whopping 256 kilobytes of RAM and had an F-8 processor courtesy of Fairchild
>>>>Electronics.  You stored the plastic Staunton magnetic pieces in the walnut box
>>>>that housed the electronics.  I loved playing Boris when travelling  in my
>>>>Mustang convertible on the Baltimore-Washington Beltway back in the early 1980s.
>>>>
>>>>It was probably 700-800 ELO on a good day.  I sold my Boris to a fellow from
>>>>Georgia and he had it taken apart after two months.  Maybe he thought there was
>>>>a little man inside?
>>>>
>>>>Tio Timmy
>>>
>>>
>>>256Kb of RAM? This must be a mistake. Wasn't it 256 bytes?
>>
>>Is it possible to write a chess program with only 256 bytes of memory?
>>
>>I mean to a program that plays and not to a program that resigns in the first
>>move out of book.
>>
>>Uri
>
>The program was in ROM not RAM.  The RAM was an electronic "scratchpad" I
>believe.
>Jim



Yes. I guess the program was 8 or 16Kb of ROM.

Rumour has it that it was a program by David Slate, co-author of the mythical
"Chess" mainframe program.



    Christophe



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