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Subject: Re: Bitboards

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:54:44 12/05/98

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On December 05, 1998 at 17:22:43, Frank Phillips wrote:

>On a PII are programs based on bitboards inherently faster than those based  on
>integer arrays?


short answer:  NO.  The advantage of bitboards comes from greater data
density.  IE on a 64 bit machine, we use the entire 64 bits that the
processor efficiently moves around.  Non bitboard programs don't have values
that require 64 bits, so that the processor wastes a lot of time fiddling
with 64 bit registers with very small values in them.  So on a 64 bit machine,
bitboards make a lot of sense.

On 32 bit machines, there is no real advantage to them, they are probably no
slower nor any faster, than a non-bitboard program...

But 32 bit machines are on the way out...



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