Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: A more meaningful test?

Author: Matthew Hull

Date: 08:02:08 05/05/04

Go up one level in this thread


On May 05, 2004 at 10:41:38, Rolf Tueschen wrote:

>On May 05, 2004 at 10:29:48, Matthew Hull wrote:
>
>>On May 05, 2004 at 10:25:23, Matthew Hull wrote:
>>
>>>On May 05, 2004 at 04:44:19, martin fierz wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 21:06:30, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 18:21:07, martin fierz wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 13:44:21, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 10:49:42, martin fierz wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 07:32:01, Rolf Tueschen wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On May 04, 2004 at 07:11:15, martin fierz wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On May 03, 2004 at 22:50:58, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>If you recall, I _have_ given some error estimates in the past.   Remember the
>>>>>>>>>>>wildly varying speedup numbers I showed you the first time this issue came up?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>i recall that you gave wildly varying speedup numbers, and an explanation for
>>>>>>>>>>why this happens. i  don't recall a real error estimate, but that can be either
>>>>>>>>>>because
>>>>>>>>>>-> you gave one and i didn't see it
>>>>>>>>>>-> you gave one, i saw it and forgot
>>>>>>>>>>-> you didn't give one at all
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>so... what kind of numbers would you give if you were pressed?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Isn't it impolite to imply the third option if Bob JUST said that he did give
>>>>>>>>>some?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>no - asking questions always has to be allowed among scientists. forbidding to
>>>>>>>>ask questions is the hallmark of religious fanatics and fascists... but i
>>>>>>>>digress :-)
>>>>>>>>bob says he gave numbers, which he did. but IIRC, he never gave an error
>>>>>>>>estimate. so i am allowed to ask for it, and it is not at all impolite to do so.
>>>>>>>>what he did show is the speedup in about 30 different positions, which could
>>>>>>>>vary wildly depending on the position.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>i don't know why you think you have to stand up and defend bob every time
>>>>>>>>somebody says something about him you don't like. just leave that up to him. he
>>>>>>>>can take it :-)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>cheers
>>>>>>>>  martin
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I wasn't offended.  I hope my answer was ok.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>i didn't think you'd be offended, and your answer was ok, but...why don't you
>>>>>>take N (preferably N>>30...) positions and compute the standard deviation of
>>>>>>your speedup numbers, and the standard deviation of the average speedup? you can
>>>>>>still discuss the meaning of this, but at least you have an error margin you can
>>>>>>attach to your speedup. i don't see anything wrong with that!? even if the
>>>>>>probability distribution is obviously not a normal distribution, you can
>>>>>>probably approximate it as such, and get an idea of it's width from these
>>>>>>numbers.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>This is not an easy question to deal with.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>IE if you take the standard deviation of a set of random numbers between
>>>>>>>0 and N what do you get?  That is what the speedup numbers look like for some
>>>>>>>positions.  For others the speedup is a near-perfect constant value.  Add some
>>>>>>>perfect constants plus some randomly distributed values and exactly what does
>>>>>>>the SD show?  :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>i don't quite understand your question. if you take enough positions, then you
>>>>>>will get something sensible, i would think. if you doubt this, you can take e.g.
>>>>>>10'000 sequential positions from crafty's ICC log, and bunch them together in
>>>>>>groups of 1000, and compute average speedup + stdev-of-average-speedup for each
>>>>>>of the bunches. i can't imagine that you get 10 wildly differing values, as your
>>>>>>statement above suggests.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>cheers
>>>>>>  martin
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>It isn't so easy to get speedup.  IE how would I take a position that took X
>>>>>seconds with 2 or 4 cpus and compute the 1 cpu time?  Think about it carefully
>>>>>and you will see the problem.  How to get the 1-cpu test case to have a properly
>>>>>loaded hash table, killer move table, history table, etc, before starting the
>>>>>search???
>>>>
>>>>i don't understand this part at all. run the exact same test on a 1 CPU machine,
>>>>and then on an N-CPU machine.
>>>>the reason i don't understand this at all is that all the details you are
>>>>talking about are irrelevant. i want to know what happens if i run the same test
>>>>positions on a 1 CPU box or on a N CPU box. this is easy to answer, because it
>>>>can be determined experimentally. whether or not there are philosophical issues
>>>>as those you raise above can be discussed, but it doesn't stop you from getting
>>>>your number...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>The best bet is to take N positions where N is large.  But then that is not the
>>>>>same as what happens in real games where the positions are connected via info
>>>>>passed from search to search in the hash table.
>>>>
>>>>not true if you use 1000 positions from crafty's ICC log file, where the exact
>>>>same thing happens, because these are also positions from real games, connected
>>>>to each other.
>>>
>>>
>>>The only way I can see how your idea would work is if crafty played a series of
>>>games searching to a fixed depth with a single processor.  Then take the
>>>positions from those games and set them up in the order they occurred and time
>>>crafty's response to those positions to the same depth, but with 2 processors,
>>>then do it all over again with 3 processors, etc.  That way for each run, the
>>>effects of cache relavency are not lost as would be the case in disconnected
>>>test set positions.
>>>
>>>Then you might have an idea of an expected speedup in actual games, rather than
>>>from disconnected test positions.
>>>
>>>That is a much more involved and time consuming test.  I don't think he could
>>>have afforded that kind of CPU time on a CRAY.
>>
>>Not to mention that you would need to time the opponents response exactly for
>>each test run to get the effects of pondering on cache as well, I would assume.
>>Thats an extra complication.
>
>Yes, but this ius exactly what Bob is saying all the time, but what Martin
>doesn't follow...


Besides which, pondering makes no sense if you are searching to a fixed depth,
which means it's kind of impossible to get the numbers as they affect a real
game, because you can't replicate the effects of pondering.

I think Martin has not thought this through.


>
>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>It is just a very hard question to answer.  And change the positions and you can
>>>>>change the answer significantly...
>>>>
>>>>perhaps, perhaps not. you didn't measure it, and so you can't say :-)
>>>>
>>>>cheers
>>>>  martin



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.