Author: Mark Young
Date: 11:26:10 08/12/98
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On August 12, 1998 at 14:16:03, fca wrote: >On August 12, 1998 at 11:46:18, Mark Young wrote: > >>On August 12, 1998 at 11:13:06, fca wrote: >> >>>This has arisen from a post by Mr Langrath elsewhere. >>> >>>If multitasking two chess programs on one PC, and playing a game between >>>them, how does one "fairly" allocate resources between them? >>> >>>I accept there is no question of properly deducing playing strength in such a >>>scenario. That is NOT the objective, therefore. >>> >>>0. What does "fairly" mean? >>> >>>1. RAM? >>> >>>2. CPU %? >>> >>>3. Idle / background priority? >>> >>>4, Thinking Time set on program? >>> >>>and especially >>> >>>5. Should permanent brain be switched off on one or both programs? >>> >>>Ideas on how to arrive at the answers, please, or better still - the answers >>>themselves. :-) > >>When I test programs on one computer I used a CPU meter, so I would know if one >>of the programs was taking any cpu. Some programs will, even with permanent >>brain off. > >Programmer guesses a competitor may be running... So keeps reading the keyboard >intensively, or doing some other hogging. They are a sly lot. Of course >motives cannot be attributed for sure! ;-) > >> Or some programs like Nimzo98 do not have permanent brain option. In >>either case what you need to do is open up an option box in the program like >>level or database or something like that. Check the cpu meter till you find >>something that stops the program for taking any cpu.Then have the other program >>think while the option box is still opened in the other. > >Good suggestion! > >BTW, I suspect (by virtue of solving time variation, not attributable to hash >table effects as program probably had none and anyway the behaviour was >reproducible from clean start-up) one program of starting thinking even in setup >position, as you enter the pieces, once kings are on the board. It was for the >ZX Spectrum, so I cannot check any more. It either assumed WTM or needed that >input of Who to Move before commencing Setup! Of course, each time you >added/subtracted a piece, it reinitialised thinking. Cunning way of improving >solving times. > >Re all the other points, Mark? > >Kind regards > >fca All the other points are pretty much common sense. If you are testing the programs keep things a equal as possible. Time, ram, ect. The hard part is stopping the other program for taking CPU time when its not its turn to move.
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