Author: Didzis Cirulis
Date: 05:11:29 12/14/98
Go up one level in this thread
>Would you specify this?
Here I repost my message posted december 4 as reply to Kai Skibbe:
So, What do we have - a single PC and any two programs. And we are mad with
desire to test the programs we have got as fair as possible. Right?
Step one: make sure both programs can be run with the permanent brain off. For
example, it is difficult for Nimzo 98 as there is no PB on/off option in this
program.
Step two: For dos programs make sure they get as much processor power as
possible when active and gets suspended when unactive.
Step three: find out the Hash sizes your programs can afford. Example: On my 32
Mb RAM system, I usually give 8 Mb of hash to both programs to avoid any
swapping. This IS important, as swaping makes everything useless.
Step four: Imagine there is an amount of calculations that should be done by a
program, say, 1 milion positions. And now you should do some testing:
Situation (all numbers are given as an example only!):
1) get the time used by the program A when it runs alone: 100 seconds
2) same task, same program A, but program B is there
unactive in the background, and hogs some computing power: 140 seconds
3) get the time used by the program B when it runs alone: 120 seconds
4) same task, same program B, but program A is there
unactive in the background, and hogs some computing power: 125 seconds
So, in both situations it may happen that program runs slower if another one
sits there in the background.
Step five: Calculations!
Formula:
koeficient =(result with a "hog" in background)/ (result if alone)
For program A it makes: 140/100=1.4
For program B it makes: 125/120=1.042
Step six: Let's say we want to play at 30 minutes per game level. What do we do
now is the calculation of the times needed by both programs:
For program A: 30 minutes x 1.4 = 42 minutes
For program B: 30 minutes x 1.042 = 31.26 minutes or let's say 31 minute.
Final step: we give Program A the 42 minutes for the game, and 31 minute to
Program B, and :-)
Run all tests 3 times! Sometimes it is required to restart the program every
time to be sure we get the same situation again.
This is the way we can make a fair match even on a single PC where both programs
are busy stealing the computing power from each other :-)
There may be different practical applications of this. One program may have some
built-in test that is very convenient for this purpose, but another one may be
tested running a test position at a fixed depth. Or there may be programs where
you should disable Book, and run the initial position as a test position... Ask
me if any problems.
Didzis
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