Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 10:51:36 07/08/99
Go up one level in this thread
On July 07, 1999 at 14:10:55, Ian Osgood wrote:
>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).
What do you mean by "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.
I could give Tiger 128K hash table size on the 386sx 20MHz which is in fact a
very bad machine for my program. Tiger is a true 32 bits program, so each time I
get or send an integer to memory I need 2 memory cycles (the 386sx has a 16 bits
memory data bus !!!). The funny thing is that I hardly never need my integers to
be 32 bits long. Generally 16 bits integers (and even 8 bits integers) are
enough!
I can do only 700 nodes per seconds on this computer.
I could use my very small opening book (7500 moves).
>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.
Well... I'm almost sure that Tiger on my 386sx20 would have a bad time against
the Sapphire...!
Christophe
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