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Subject: Re: Does 64 bit architecture have any benefit on chess programs?

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 03:21:19 10/02/02

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On October 01, 2002 at 02:16:34, emerson tan wrote:

>Does 64 bit architecture have any benefit on chess programs? If it does, how
>much faster is it compared to 32 bit programs?

According to SPECint (which is predominantly 32-bit), a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 is, on
average, 9% faster than a 1.25GHz Alpha.

Looking specifically at the Crafty benchmark, which is "optimized" for 64-bit
chips, the Pentium 4 is 6% faster than the Alpha.

Does this mean 64-bit gives you a 3% advantage at chess? I think there are too
many variables at play here to say for sure. But if the gain is anywhere from 25
to 60%, as another poster suggested, you'd think the Alpha would be able to
improve on the P4 by more than 3%.

We'll have to wait for Hammer (which will be almost equally adept at running 32
and 64 bit software) to find out for sure. My guess is that when running 64-bit
Crafty, Hammer's extra registers will give it a 10% gain and its 64-bitiness
will give it another 10% gain. In other words, a Hammer running 64-bit Crafty
will be 20% faster than the same chip running 32-bit Crafty.

-Tom



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