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Subject: Re: random access latency opteron versus k7

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 13:19:09 05/30/04

Go up one level in this thread


On May 30, 2004 at 16:15:54, Robert Hyatt wrote:

You are denying tested data?

>On May 30, 2004 at 15:41:30, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>
>>On May 29, 2004 at 11:30:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>[snip]
>>>See above.  _no_ improvement.  Raw latency on opteron is 1/2 the raw latency on
>>>the K7 and Intel boxes.  But mapping adds 2 extra memory accesses on the opteron
>>>which does away with any actual advantage...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>Softwarebenches like linbench and such pumping sequential a few gigabytes
>>>>through the machine and then divide that by the search time. Then you have
>>>>bandwidth. 1/bandwidth = latency they claim.
>>>
>>>
>>>But that is the latency _you_ are quoting when you say opteron is 1/2 the
>>>latency of the K7.  In your worst-case it is _not 1/2.  It is the same.
>>
>>Let's show you the tested facts K7 versus A64:
>>Opteron single cpu 2.5 cas versus k7 cas 2.5. Note the k7 has all memory banks
>>filled the opteron does *not* it just has a single dimm and is single channel
>>and not even dual channel. So actually the latency is better than shown here.
>>Quad opteron tested at 120 ns latency for a single cpu in fact when i tried a
>>while ago.
>>
>>E:\dblat>dblat 300000000
>>Setting up a random access pattern, may take a while
>>Finished
>>Random access:  13.156 s, 131.560 ns/access
>>Testing same pattern again
>>Random access:  13.374 s, 133.740 ns/access
>>Setting up a different random access pattern, may take a while
>>Finished
>>Random access:  13.343 s, 133.430 ns/access
>>Testing same pattern again
>>Random access:  13.265 s, 132.650 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     1:   0.250 s,   2.500 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     2:   0.484 s,   4.840 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     4:   0.875 s,   8.750 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     8:   1.781 s,  17.810 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    16:   3.375 s,  33.750 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    32:   6.265 s,  62.650 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    64:   6.516 s,  65.160 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   128:   7.000 s,  70.000 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   256:   7.938 s,  79.380 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   512:   9.188 s,  91.880 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset  1024:   9.875 s,  98.750 ns/access
>>
>>Now the dual k7. all banks filled. a-brand memory.
>>C:\tries>dblat 300000000
>>Setting up a random access pattern, may take a while
>>Finished
>>Random access:  36.266 s, 362.660 ns/access
>>Testing same pattern again
>>Random access:  36.406 s, 364.060 ns/access
>>Setting up a different random access pattern, may take a while
>>Finished
>>Random access:  36.250 s, 362.500 ns/access
>>Testing same pattern again
>>Random access:  36.484 s, 364.840 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     1:   0.906 s,   9.060 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     2:   1.766 s,  17.660 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     4:   3.437 s,  34.370 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset     8:   6.891 s,  68.910 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    16:  13.875 s, 138.750 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    32:  19.093 s, 190.930 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset    64:  19.156 s, 191.560 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   128:  19.328 s, 193.280 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   256:  19.719 s, 197.190 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset   512:  20.437 s, 204.370 ns/access
>>Sequential access offset  1024:  21.860 s, 218.600 ns/access
>>
>>So practical difference for computerchess :
>>
>>363 / 132 = 2.75 times faster latency for the opteron
>>
>>On die memory controller isn't that stupid nah?
>
>Never said it was.  I _did_ say that if you blow out the TLB on the K7 and on
>the Opteron, the average access times are close.
>
>raw latency on opteron is about 70ns to do _one_ memory read.  To read a random
>access word, where the TLB fails, requires 5 memory reads.  No way to avoid it,
>and it is going to cost 350ns.  _period_.  On the K7, average latency is about
>125ns to do _one_ memory read.  To read a random access word, where the TLB
>fails, requires 3 memory reads.  Or about 375ns.
>
>Those are _real_ numbers, reported by _many_ people including AMD.
>
>
>I have no idea what your program above does, and really don't care.  But the
>opteron has a much bigger TLB, if you don't blow it out by referring to at least
>2048 different pages, then you are not comparing apples to apples.  Opteron has
>1024 TLB entries.  Enough to efficiently address 4 megs of RAM (1024 * 4kb
>pages).  Or if your O/S is smart enough, 2 gigs of ram with 1024 entries * 2M
>page size.
>
>But for true non-TLB assisted random accesses, it is 350ns period.  There is
>absolutely no way to avoid the 4-level page translation lookup stuff.  Opteron
>ends up doing almost twice as many memory accesses as the K7.  Of course it can
>2^48 virtual addresses, and 2^40 real addresses in its present form so it has
>some advantages...
>
>
>>
>>>>I would prefer calling that 'streaming latency'. It's full name officially is
>>>>though 'cross bandwidth latency'.
>>>>
>>>>For chesssoftware that cross bandwidth latency is completely irrelevant.
>>>Not if you need to move blocks of data...
>>
>>That would make a funny chessprogram moving blocks of a few megabyte memory for
>>each node :)
>
>
>
>Don't have to move blocks of a few megabytes.  Just generating moves is enough
>to take advantage of sequential reads...
>
>
>
>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>The IID principle can also apply to some additional situations:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>1) You have a hash move, but it's at depth-2 rather than depth-1. You can do
>>>>>>>>>another IID layer in this case.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>In that case hashmoves works better of course.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>2) Your fail-high hash move (for some engines the only possible kind of hash
>>>>>>>>>move) fails low. Here you can do IID to get an alternative move.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>This is highly unlikely as your IID is at depth-i where i > 0.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>So most likely that hashmove is already from a position j >= depth - i, which
>>>>>>>>makes IID a complete waste of your time.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I meant an IID where the move that already failed low is thrown out. You want
>>>>>>>the second-best move at the reduced depth.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Use double nullmove. works better than IID and the first move you already get
>>>>>>the best move :)
>>>>>
>>>>>The depth reduction is too high. More experiments are needed - but it would be
>>>>>quite a coincidence if the best IID depth reduction just happened to be exactly
>>>>>twice the best null move depth reduction.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Usually, you will waste a few nodes this way of course. The idea is to avoid-the
>>>>>>>worst case scenario - of doing a full search through a bunch of other moves,
>>>>>>>before finding the fail-high move.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You can add 1000 conditions, but if something doesn't work in general, it won't
>>>>>>work with 1000 conditions either. It just is harder to test in a way that
>>>>>>objective and statistical significant conclusions are possible to statistical
>>>>>>significant conclude whether it works or doesn't.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>In Rybka, IID works. Further, I haven't found any conditions which make it work
>>>>>better, although I didn't try anything really fancy - just some comparisons
>>>>>between current eval and the bound. Anyway, I read your reply to Tord, and will
>>>>>keep retesting as the engine evolves.
>>>>
>>>>I didn't find a single condition under which it works for DIEP. It's just a
>>>>waste of system time IMHO.
>>>
>>>Too bad.  It works for me too.  Used very selectively.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>And - as Tord mentioned - an IID search can be turned into the final
>>>>>>>>>reduced-depth search, based on its result.
>>>>>>>>>Vas
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Depth reducing the current search?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Sounds like a rather bad idea to me.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Well that's the million dollar question, isn't it?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Seems there is 2 camps.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'm currently in the camp that i tried both worlds and concluded that depth
>>>>>>reducing with nullmove is already enough.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I can imagine last few plies some types of forward pruning somehow work. So far
>>>>>>i could not prove that last though.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I have a hard time believing that forward pruning in the entire tree is going to
>>>>>>beat the nullmove pruning.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>We both are titled chessplayers, and i see simply that the few mistakes todays
>>>>>>engines make, usually it is a dubious move caused by bugs in the forward
>>>>>>pruning.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Shredder is clearest example.
>>>>>
>>>>>Yes Shredder has some blind spots, but it can also search really deep,
>>>>>especially when it's attacking. It's always nice to search deeper in the
>>>>>critical lines. Anyway - I'm still checking out both camps.
>>>>
>>>>Well it's not so hard to add 7 plies to your search depth because your
>>>>'selective search' might see 7 more (which in fact it does in diep).
>>>>
>>>>I prefer a 14 ply search depth with just nullmove above 18 with the chance that
>>>>all your search lines are depth reduced and last few plies you supernullmove and
>>>>in qsearch you lazy evaluate :)
>>>>
>>>>With forward pruning at every ply like shredder seems to do you only see faster
>>>>what it sees anyway. What your eval doesn't see, search won't find either
>>>>because you nonstop shorten such lines more than my '14 ply search depth' is
>>>>doing.
>>>>
>>>>>The key is to think of the future - because it will soon be here. I really don't
>>>>>care which search misses more tactics on some 32 bit 1 GHz machine ...
>>>>>Vas
>>>>
>>>>Last time Shredder ran on a 1 Ghz machine at a world champs was in world champs
>>>>London 2000, so those days are long gone.
>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Vas



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