Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 11:10:55 07/07/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 07, 1999 at 02:02:18, Christophe Theron wrote: >On July 06, 1999 at 16:07:41, Ian Osgood wrote: > >>On July 06, 1999 at 15:31:06, Christophe Theron wrote: >> >>>On July 06, 1999 at 14:34:24, Ian Osgood wrote: >>> >>>>On July 05, 1999 at 15:12:55, Pierre Bourget wrote: >>>> >>... >>>>> >>>>>It would be interesting if someone can play a match of a dozen games between the >>>>>Cosmos and the Sapphire II to see once and for all who is the best portable >>>>>chess computer.Anyone willing to do that ? >>>>> >>>>>Pierre >>>> >>>>Great idea! >>>> >>>>This is easy to do for anyone who owns a Cosmos and has access to FICS (telnet >>>>freechess.org 5000). >>>> >>>>Login and play SapphireII, an auto-playing Novag Sapphire II. I try to keep it >>>>available 24 hours a day, although I have been having problems with my internet >>>>connection lately. >>> >>>Huh... How is it possible? You can't operate that manually, do you? And I >>>thought the Sapphire was a standalone computer. How is it possible to have it >>>connected to the Internet to play automatic games? Did you build a robot with an >>>arm to operate the small thing and a video camera to look at the small >>>display??? :) >> >>Many models of Novag computers came with a serial port, through which you can >>send commands and receive results (such as the computer's move and thinking >>analysis). I wrote a WinBoard engine which translated WinBoard engine commands >>into Novag serial commands, allowing my Sapphire II to play on the Internet or >>from WinBoard! It is also handy to run test suites against the SapphireII >>(similar to crafty's "test" command). The engine also translates chess server >>incremental time controls into appropriate thinking levels. >> >>SapphireII has played over 5000 automated games on FICS, maintaining a rating in >>the range 2000-2200. Many of the amateur chess authors here have appreciated >>having a program of some sophistication (albeit slow) to spar against. >> >>BTW, the serial port is non-standard, requiring an adapter (called the Novag >>Distributor) to translate signals to RS-232. Most people don't buy the adapter >>because it is an outrageous $70! This is also the method used to connect the >>SapphireII to the Novag Universal Chess Board (sold as the Sapphire II DeLuxe). >> >>Come over to FICS and try it for yourself, Christophe! >> >>Ian > > >Wow! Good work Ian! > >Unfortunately I will not have the time to challenge the SapphireII these days. >However, if I do it one day I will try to run Tiger on a computer of the same >class as the SapphireII processor. How fast is it? Is it 20MHz? In this case I >can play with my 386sx 20MHz notebook to equalize chances... > > > Christophe The Sapphire II runs at 32 MHz (divided down to 16 MHz). It has a 120K position opening book, and 128K RAM for hash tables (don't know how many positions that is). It reports between 3-5K nps over the course of a blitz game. Quite good for a portable, but no match for PC programs. As a measure of its strength, here are some of its results against slower FICS computers: oldman (crafty 486) 1-1=1 ezcape (crafty P83) 2-2 PoorGnu (gnuchess P120) 9-4=7 SapphireII beats weakened computers, like TheComputer (CST level 1), Snafu, and Wronskian; and loses to computers which run faster than 100 MHz. With its tuned Kittinger program, SapphireII also has an edge against amateur programs such as PostModernist, Amateur, POWERHOUSE, JRCP, and HMChess. SapphireII is specifically weak against crafty with its excellent tactical extensions. Ian
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