Author: Tord Romstad
Date: 09:33:22 04/23/05
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On April 23, 2005 at 11:04:01, Tony Petters wrote: >I have contacted Compaq and ordered a 256 CPU monster, I am going to be running >a multi-cpu version of GNU ! Feel free to do so, but please realize that you will have to do a tremendous amount of work. You can't just drop a random chess program, drop it on a 256 CPU computer, and expect it to crush the competition. If you use GNUChess without any modifications, it will run exactly as fast on the 256 CPU monster as on a computer with only 1 of these CPUs. Writing a parallell computer chess program is a difficult and time-consuming task, even if the program is supposed to run only on a desktop computer with a dual processor. Optimising a program for a 256 CPU machine is much harder. If you do so and manage to win the WCCC, you fully deserve the title. It is often claimed that in the early days of physical sport, training was considered as bad sportsmanship, because it made the competition unfair. Some people might train more than others, giving them an unfair advantage. I am not sure whether this is true, but I think almost everybody today would agree that it seems extremely silly. In my opinion, requiring uniform hardware in the WCCC is just as sill, for exactly the same reasons. If you have spent years optimising your program for a supercomputer, or even made special-purpose chess hardware (like Hydra), why shouldn't you be allowed to benefit from your hard work? Tord
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