Author: Albert Silver
Date: 05:00:54 02/16/04
Go up one level in this thread
On February 15, 2004 at 15:06:15, Joachim Rang wrote:
>On February 15, 2004 at 10:26:01, Albert Silver wrote:
>
>>On February 15, 2004 at 09:38:33, Bob Durrett wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Chess commentary:
>>>
>>>The days of the software programmers are fast coming to an end.
>>>
>>>The days of the "hardware programmers" are just beginning.
>>>
>>>Bob D.
>>
>>It wouldn't the first chess hardware solution to be sold for the PC if offered
>>now. The problem is that the card/board doesn't evolve nearly as fast as normal
>>CPUs so pretty soon whatever advantage it had over the CPUs of the day is lost.
>>After that it becomes more a collector's item than anything else.
>>
>> Albert
>
>I think the contrary is true. THe prospects of accellerating such an FPGA - Card
>are much better than of further accellerating the processors. The current FPGA
>runs only on 33 MHz, it is easy to double and triple that but with processors
>it'S not so easy.
>
>regards Joachim
You don't know how easy or hard it is to increase the speed. Plus the cost would
be huge for every upgrade. Suppose you can get the latest Hydra, exactly as it
played at Paderborn, for $200, and I think I'm being optimistic, but it's not
important. I can expect every upgrade to cost that much, since it would imply
buying the new hardware. If the hardware alone only doubles in speed, I will
spend $200 to get a little less than an extra ply or ~50 points. If I wait a
year or two and buy a new CPU instead, I will pay about as much for a doubling
in speed of *everything*. FOr Hydra to be an interesting option, it can't merely
be somewhat faster than current software+hardware combinations, it must be
hugely faster, and decisively stronger. Why? Because whenever I upgrade my CPU
for normal reasons, my chess programs benefit from it, but in Hydra's case not.
The only way is to buy another expensive upgraded hardware solution that will
only work for its chess program.
Albert
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