Author: Robert Pope
Date: 06:58:12 05/13/99
Go up one level in this thread
On May 13, 1999 at 09:14:48, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On May 13, 1999 at 09:10:05, Torstein Hall wrote: > >>I think a DB chip will kill all the Fritzes, Rebels, Nimzos, Juniors and Hiarcs >>of this world. What is the point in developing, or buying, something that is a >>lot weaker than the "Micro Monster" :-) >> >>But perhaps it could be made with a programming interface, letting other >>programs use it for search, and add their own evaluation functions etc.? >> >>Torstein > > >This can't be done... the _hardware_ does the eval, and the last N plies >of the tree search. All that could be modified would be the first few plies >of the search, (and the extensions) since that part is done in software. But >the "guts" of the thing will _always_ be deep blue. It can only evaluate the >things that the hardware was built to do, and no more. The search and >quiescence search can only behave like the chip is built with no flexibility. > > >Evaluation weights can be changed, but new things can't be added... so no >matter what you do, you end up with a 'deep blue' program... > >Bob In theory, though, how feasible might it be for Hsu to create a modified DB "searcher" chip that just did the make/unmake part of the search? When it gets to the eval part, instead of the lightning-fast hardware eval, it sends out current position information, and waits for a software eval to be returned. I know a software eval would cause a huge performance hit, but wouldn't the faster move generation and tree travel still give it a nice advantage over a pure software program? I remember the article mentioned something about a hardware trap-door in the chip that could potentially be used to add a missed eval feature to the search. It seems like that idea ought to be extendable to adding a software evaluation or evaluation supplement. Rob
This page took 0.01 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.