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Subject: Re: DB chip?

Author: blass uri

Date: 23:08:06 05/13/99

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On May 14, 1999 at 00:28:43, Mark Young wrote:

>On May 13, 1999 at 01:15:16, blass uri wrote:
>
>>
>>On May 13, 1999 at 00:31:53, Mark Young wrote:
>>
>>>On May 11, 1999 at 18:28:53, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 11, 1999 at 18:05:21, Charles L. Williams wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On May 11, 1999 at 13:11:16, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On May 11, 1999 at 12:48:22, blass uri wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On May 11, 1999 at 12:01:05, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On May 11, 1999 at 03:06:32, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On May 07, 1999 at 19:18:22, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On May 07, 1999 at 18:46:32, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>On May 07, 1999 at 17:48:48, vitor wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>[snip]
>>>>>>>>>>>>this is off topic, but why didnt you ever try making a hardware version cray
>>>>>>>>>>>>blitz? or is that some future project? it seems cray blitz was always up against
>>>>>>>>>>>>hardware programs like belle ,hitech, deep thought.
>>>>>>>>>>>Of those machines, only deep thought had dedicated chess circuits.  The others
>>>>>>>>>>>were general purpose machines, running a computer program.  Just like Cray
>>>>>>>>>>>Blitz.  Cray Blitz was more than a match for all except Deep Thought, which had
>>>>>>>>>>>specialized hardware.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Why didn't Dr. Hyatt write special hardware circuits?  That would be a pretty
>>>>>>>>>>>expensive hobby.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>actually they were _all_ hardware machines.  Belle was the first special-
>>>>>>>>>>purpose chess machine...  Hitech was next, built as a vlsi project at CMU,
>>>>>>>>>>and finally deep thought which also originated at CMU.  Cray Blitz was the
>>>>>>>>>>only general-purpose computer program of the group, although CB was highly
>>>>>>>>>>coupled to the Cray architecture, with a vectorized move generator, and a
>>>>>>>>>>very good parallel search...
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>And you are right, in that except for deep thought, Cray Blitz was stronger
>>>>>>>>>>than the others...
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I was under the impression that Hitech was equal or (perhaps) slightly better
>>>>>>>>>than Cray Blitz.  It lost on tiebreak at the '86 WCCC to your program, but won
>>>>>>>>>some of the North American tournaments in the '84 through '88 range, didn't it?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Dave
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Berliner wanted everyone to believe this.  And in 1985 it was even true as we
>>>>>>>>were searching 80K nodes per second to hitech's 120K or so.  But in 1986 and
>>>>>>>>later, we were better.  In 1989 we were 5X faster due to newer hardware...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>HiTech won the 1985 ACM event, we won the 1986 WCCC event (and beat HiTech in
>>>>>>>>the final round to win, in fact).  I don't remember them winning anything beyond
>>>>>>>>that because in 1987 this pesky thing known as "chiptest" and then "deep
>>>>>>>>thought" was unveiled...  :)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>IMHO, HiTech was never "better" than CB.  It may have been as good.  But the
>>>>>>>>only 'down' time for Cray Blitz was the 1985 event where a poor change by me
>>>>>>>>produced some ugly pawn positional play that killed it in two games in 1985,
>>>>>>>>and in the second round of the 1986 WCCC before I found and excised the 4
>>>>>>>>lines of code that were killing it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>After 1987 there was never any doubt who was best from that point forward,
>>>>>>>>the author being Hsu...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I know that there is a doubt  about it
>>>>>>>some people(not me) believe that deep thought is not better than Fritz3(P90).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>They could prove to the public after they lost to Fritz that they are better
>>>>>>>than Fritz by playing 20 games between them and Fritz and doing the games public
>>>>>>>but they did not do it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Uri
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Everyone should read Hsu's paper in IEEE Micro.  He mentions the 10-game match
>>>>>>that causes such an uproar of denials, and goes on to give results over a total
>>>>>>of 40 games...  and it is pretty eye-opening....
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not to mention the fact that he may be ending computer chess as we know it by
>>>>>>releasing a pc-compatible version of the DB chip.  And for those that want to
>>>>>>talk about commercial programmers using this hardware, forget the idea, because
>>>>>>the concept is _flawed_.  This is DB evaluation, and DB search.  All that can
>>>>>>be modified is the first N plies of the search.  So trying to graft this on to
>>>>>>some other 'engine' only produces a new flavor of deep blue, not a new flavor
>>>>>>of the base engine.  The evaluation and last few plies of search are the heart
>>>>>>and soul of a chess program.  And in this case, the heart and soul is pure
>>>>>>deep blue.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Things are going to change in a serious way before long...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>So what's the plan?  Will there be a DB chip on a card we can plug into our PCs?
>>>>>  It seems like this will help the programmers, by giving them something
>>>>>extremely strong as a reference for developing and tweaking their programs.  On
>>>>>the other hand, a chip is hardware, and not so easy to tweak.  It seems like a
>>>>>DB chip is advantageous to us.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Chuck
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Apparently there will be a PCI card that can be plugged into a PC just like
>>>>any other PCI card now (network cards, SCSI cards, etc.)  This will include
>>>>one or more DB chips (probably not public at present.)  I'd expect that a
>>>>single card with a single DB chip would likely sell for 200 bucks (US) or so
>>>>based on comments by Hsu in the past (IE we had a long conversation about this
>>>>in Cape May at the last ACM event a few years ago.)
>>>>
>>>>It will take him some time to (a) fab the newer DB chip, design the PCI
>>>>interface, (b) modify the current DB software part to work with the new PCI
>>>>hardware and on a pc platform, (c) do whatever else is needed to provide a
>>>>commercial-quality product interface.
>>>>
>>>>DB's chess processor is static in regard to what it can evaluate and how the
>>>>search is done, it is dynamic in that evaluation weights can be modified
>>>>easily or disabled (set to 0).
>>>>
>>>>Hsu estimated 30 million nodes per second on a single chess processor.  This
>>>>using the same 'approach' as the current DB chip, only using a more modern fab
>>>>process.  That would be an absolute killer...  and using multiple copies of
>>>>such a chip, a PC could quite easily search way over 100M nodes per second and
>>>>be as strong as DB was in 1997.
>>>
>>>This is amazing, what was the cost of the deep blue machine in 1997? Why has
>>>this technology gotten so cheap in just a few short years? What can we expect in
>>>another 2 to 4 years after deepblue jr? (a billion NPS??? or more)
>>>
>>>Going from say a top of the line machine doing 1 million nodes a sec.(Quad PIII
>>>with the right chess program to take advantage of the Quad chip computer) to
>>>over 100M nodes per second. Are we likely to see this kind of performence jump
>>>again in our lifetimes for home use? Is Deepblue jr the beginning of the end for
>>>chess programming?
>>
>>I do not believe that Deepblue jr is the beginning of the end for chess
>>programming.
>>
>>Deep blue is not close to be perfact and programmers can do better programs.
>>
>>Uri
>
>
>Yes, it is far from perfect, but perfect chess was never the goal, beating all
>human players was the goal. Once programs reach a certain point, 2900 maybe 3000
>elo, what will be the point of increasing the playing strength in terms of the
>chess market and the playing public.

The point will be better analysis of positions and helping correspondence chess
players.

Uri



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