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Subject: Re: Uneven hardware for WMCC?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 04:55:17 05/27/99

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On May 27, 1999 at 01:50:09, Prakash Das wrote:

>Reading this board (on an occasional basis) that Rebel will be using the fastest
> PC available, I hopped over to the rebel site, and see Ed's site boasting of
>using a Kyrotech.
>
> It occurred to me whether the various programs will be competing on their own
>chosen hardware? Thus, one participant would bring a fast computer while another
>will be using something else. This will surely hurt the guy on the slower
>computer.
>
> Shouldn't an event like wmcc be held on even hardware for all? Otherwise,
>what's the meaning of these results. Considering that the result will be used
>heavily for marketing purposes, etc.
>

the short answer is "no".  Because the purpose of the WCCC is to find the
best program/computer player in the world.  It was _never_ an 'equal platform
chess event'.  Otherwise Chess 4.x, Belle, Cray Blitz, deep thought, etc would
_never_ have been able to compete.

Don Beal used to host a uniform platform chess tournament, but he hasn't done it
in several years now.


> On another note, for a user like me, it doesn't matter if Rebel (just an
>example), finishes first using the fastest PC.. I never use the fastest
>processor, so the results are bit meaningless for me as user. What's the point
>of using the fastest processor etc, for the majority of end users?
>
> Even some older programs would do well, given the best hardware around. (I hope
>Rebel is not going to loudly use it's results for marketing. It already showed
>in the GM game it has big holes in positional understanding.)


Rebel is by _no_ means the fastest machine there.  There will be at _least_ two
quad xeon boxes, plus a cluster of a couple of hundred pentium machines, plus a
Cray T3 with a couple of hundred alpha processors, etc.  The K6/600 is a toy
when you consider those machines...



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