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Subject: Re: 100:1 NPS Challenge

Author: James T. Walker

Date: 08:47:28 12/19/03

Go up one level in this thread


On December 19, 2003 at 00:26:41, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On December 18, 2003 at 16:18:21, James T. Walker wrote:
>
>>On December 18, 2003 at 16:07:44, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On December 18, 2003 at 15:53:02, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 13:20:03, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 13:09:57, Slater Wold wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 10:41:24, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 10:23:26, Matthew Hull wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 10:21:58, Slater Wold wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 09:35:16, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On December 17, 2003 at 09:05:55, Slater Wold wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I guess I will be running the 100:1 NPS challenge.  Here's the info:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I will use any books.bin & bookc.bin that Bob asks me to.  The book.bin will be
>>>>>>>>>>>created from enormous.pgn.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>My suggestion is to use book.bin, bookc.bin and books.bin from my ftp
>>>>>>>>>>machine.  book.bin has no learning data so it will start off in the best
>>>>>>>>>>possible way.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>remove position.bin before game 1.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>And, as I suggested previously, if, after a program leaves book, it is
>>>>>>>>>>in an obviously won or lost position, the game gets aborted and the next
>>>>>>>>>>one started.  There is no place for "book kills" when the goal is a time
>>>>>>>>>>handicap match.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Agreed.  The only loss Crafty has suffered in the Rebel match was a book loss.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>BTW, what were the results of that match?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>3.5-1.5 for crafty
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>see http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?336433
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Note that the match is not very interesting for me because it is an open
>>>>>>>question if Crafty is better than rebel on equal hardware and in WBEC Crafty has
>>>>>>>13/24 when Rebel has only 10/24
>>>>>>
>>>>>>There is no doubt in my mind Rebel is better than Crafty on equal hardware.  And
>>>>>>I've played, oh, about 5,000 games with Rebel.
>>>>>
>>>>>I would take that wager.  We _both_ use quad opterons.
>>>>>
>>>>>:)
>>>>>
>>>>>Isn't that "equal" by any reasonable definition?  :)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>How much better is questionable, but it's obviously not 8x.  ;)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The more interesting question is if Rebel is able to get better result than
>>>>>>>Crafty in the premier division.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Uri
>>>>
>>>>;)  They are not running on "equal" hardware if one is using 4 cpus and the
>>>>other is using only one cpu.  I have several hundred blitz games of Crafty 19.7
>>>>vs Rebel 12 on 2 XP2400+ machines/auto232.  I call that equal hardware.  In that
>>>>case Rebel has a slight advantage on Crafty of maybe 30-40 Elo.  (According to
>>>>the few hundred games so far).
>>>>Jim
>>>
>>>
>>>That is a bad definition of "equal hardware".  IE if two programs run on a
>>>PIV 3.06ghz processor, but one uses SSE and the other doesn't, is _that_
>>>also not equal?  Or one uses hyper-threading and the other doesn't?
>>>
>>>"equal hardware" means "platforms are identical".  What a program gets out
>>>of those equal platforms is another matter.
>>>
>>>It takes effort to use that "extra stuff".  I played a couple of challenge
>>>matches years ago when someone would say "Hey, you are using a Cray, if I
>>>had something that fast, I could play equal to or better than you."  I had
>>>them send me their code, I compiled and we played on the same machine, no
>>>pondering, one cpu each.  What they overlooked was that I had invested a
>>>lot of work getting the vector hardware to help me.  They hadn't.  So on
>>>"equal hardware" I was 20x faster than they were and the match was not
>>>that pretty.
>>>
>>>Doing a parallel search takes time.  Does it seem reasonable that my opponent
>>>uses an extra year to improve his evaluation, while I use an extra year to get
>>>a good parallel search done, then we say "your parallel search is an unfair
>>>adevantage?"
>>>
>>>It's a different way of thinking about it when you think about it.  Those
>>>extra CPUs don't just magically make the program faster without a _lot_ of
>>>design effort and programming work.
>>
>>:)
>>There is no denying that you have put in a lot of work on Crafty.  I and many
>>others really appreciate what you have done.  That still does not make 1=4.  I
>>wish I had a quad or even a dual to run the "deep" programs on but I don't.
>>Maybe when the price comes down a little I can get something not quite on the
>>leading edge that I can afford.  In the mean time, for me, 1=1 and 4 is 4x
>>larger than 1. :)
>>I said a few years ago that Crafty was showing the way for others to go in chess
>>because I believed that CPUs have a practical upper limit of Ghz.  So eventually
>>all will have to go to multiple cpu operation for more speed.
>>Again I salute your work but it does not make 1=4. :)
>>Happy Hollidays,
>>Jim
>
>
>Hint:  Hardware equality has _nothing_ to do with software.  Nor operating
>system.  Nor the phase of the moon.  Hardware equality can be determined with
>_no_ electricity whatsoever.

That may be true but "Running on equal hardware" is not the same as haveing
equal hardware available.  I get your point and I'm sure you get mine so again,
Happy Holidays.
Jim



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