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Subject: Re: Dann's multiple cpu program

Author: Pete Galati

Date: 14:07:01 11/09/99

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On November 09, 1999 at 15:30:46, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On November 09, 1999 at 14:55:40, Pete Galati wrote:
>>This week the local pbs station ran a Scientific American program about robots,
>>most of it was about robots that tried to emulate movement of cockroaches and
>>tuna (not so easy).
>>
>>But the more interesting part of the program was focussing on teams of small
>>independent robots who works together to play socker and there was separate
>>developement teams who competed agaist each other with their teems of robots,
>>this was fun to watch this part.
>>
>>I forget who won the tounament, it might have been Cornel Univ.
>>
>>So the next day I more or less associated this with what Dann was talking about
>>with using a large amount of CPUs to run a program since each cpu could be
>>dedicated to a peice.  My memory's a bit foggy about what Dann had said about
>>how he planned to do this though.
>>
>>In my mind the way I would see it being done would be 1 cpu for the 8 pawns, 1
>>cpu for the 2 Knights, 1 for the 2 Bishops, 1 for the 2 Rooks, 1 for the Queen,
>>1 for the King, and then 2 more cpu, 1 for the commanding general (not a piece,
>>and 1 last cpu for the medics (not a piece) and the medics job would not really
>>be to care for the dead piece (captured) but to account for and repair the
>>damage done.  8 CPUs
>>
>>Too far fetched?  Probably.  I don't remember how Dann related what he was
>>attempting, and I probably won't dig his posts up.  I just wanted to throw the
>>concept out there the way I see it.  Is that more or less what you're doing
>>Dann?
>My idea is more related to permutations than to pieces.  If I have some board
>position p, there are a set of possible subsequent positions one ply later.  So
>I do this:
>0. Have a thread that analyzes the root for ce.  This thread is permanent for
>the duration of the iteration.
>1. Have a thread that analyzes the root for checkmates.  This thread is
>permanent for the duration of the iteration.
>2.  Have a thread that analyzes each possible next position.  These threads are
>transient.  After a time period called heartbeat, they check back in.  The ones
>that are not finding anything good abandon their tasks and analyze subsequent
>positions from the ones that are doing well.
>
>This method obviously takes a pile of CPU's and the more the merrier.  It will
>work effectively only at the longer time controls but will work well on message
>passing machines and other non SMP architectures.

Sounds like it makes more sense, I'm assuming that you'd have a separate
proccessor organizing organizing the 3 threads mentioned. When you say "message
passing machines and other non SMP architectures" this is terms unclear to me,
but how I interpret that is that you'd have completely separate computers
networked together.

There was an atricle in Linux Journal many months ago about somebody who had a
large amount of PC tower computers somehow networked together  to use as a
substitute for a mainframe monster, it was said to be more economical, but it
looked like a nightmare to me.  I don't remember any details, it was all over my
head.

Pete



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