Author: Eugene Nalimov
Date: 10:18:17 11/14/99
Go up one level in this thread
Ok, you are free to organize any event with any rules you are want :-. Returning to the theme of my letter: can program play on other hardware that is actually *much cheaper* than your suggested equal hardware? E.g. on dual Celeron/500 instead of PIII/600 (or even 550)? Eugene On November 14, 1999 at 11:42:38, Nicolas Carrasco wrote: >I saw on Chess magazine that a Computer Chess Tournament was perfectly played on >PC's of 200 MHz. If that programs can't run on a standard CPU(no matter PC,MAC,a >slow ALPHA,...) I think there are 3 options: > >1- Put all chess engines on hardware with similar speed. > >2- Tell that programers that this isn't his day. > >3- Play VS a chess engine with a CPU 3 or 4 times faster and maybe 64 bits. > >In most cases the program is what matters to people, not the combination of >HARDWARE and SOFTWARE. And if the combination is IMPORTANT we should not say the >name of the software and put a name to the COMPUTER. > >On November 14, 1999 at 02:10:24, Eugene Nalimov wrote: > >>I already posted on that topic several months ago, and sorry for re-post, but I >>think I could not formulate it better now: >> >>Subject: Re: 9th WCCC99 . '' june 14 - 20 " Notable ausence. >>From: Eugene Nalimov >>E-mail: eugenen@microsoft.com >>Message Number: 54137 >>Date: June 03, 1999 at 14:29:21 >> In Reply to: Re: 9th WCCC99 . '' june 14 - 20 " Notable ausence. >> Message ID: 54031 >> Posted by: Prakash Das >> At: pdas@mcs.com >> On: June 03, 1999 at 00:07:02 >> >>Ok, let's be fair. Let's imagine the situation where orgnizers will give every >>participant quad Alpha 21264. Fair? After that some participants will refuse to >>play - "our program will not run there, because it's written in x86 assembly, or >>don't use more than one CPU, or don't tuned for such a speed, or...". My guess >>is that exactly the same people that say "it's unfair when the hardware is >>different" will say "Ok, but best commercial programs did not play, so winner is >>not World Champion". >> >>Or Fritz representative will say "Ok, I cannot run on your Alpha, so let me >>bring my x86 machine - I want to participate, even with disadvantage". What to >>do now? >> >>So, organizers decided to stay with x86, and will give each participants quad >>Xeon. Nevertheless, some participants will say "our program will not exploit >>four CPUs", so again there will be no fair play. And there will be chess >>program for a Sony Playstation, or Nintendo, of specialized chess board. And >>then there will be (crazy) person who wrote his program in PPC assembly for Mac. >>Why ban those program? >> >>Ok, let's ban them, and give single-CPU x86 to everybody. What now? Some will >>say "we spent a lot of time debugging parallel search instead of rewriting our >>program in x86 assembly, or we deliberately left our program in C, so it can be >>portable, and worked on other aspects of engine. Others wrote their program in >>x86 assembly. Now, why our hard work is not honored? We have a disadvantage". >> >>So, organizers decided to allow any micro, but not "big iron". After that >>somebody will say "they brought 32-CPUs Alpha, and it actually costs more than >>our System/3090 in minimal configuration. And their nps is higher. Why we are >>not allowed?". More, somebody will come with specialized chess chip, and he will >>say "it really costs less than even quad Alpha that is provided by the >>organizers". >> >>So, it looks that there will be unhappy people in any situation. With the >>current rules there is clear distinction - there is WCCC, WMCCC, and some time >>ago there was "equal hardware championship". Unfortunately, due to lack >>offinancing (or maybe due to lack of qualified organizers, because old ones >>became tired, and next generation can only criticize) this year tournirs are >>"combined". IMHO, it's better to have not ideal solution than to have no >>solution at all. And if x86 commercial program will lose to some hardware >>monster, they at least can say "we have a hardware disadvantage", so in a sense >>everybody will be happy. >> >>Eugene >> >>On November 13, 1999 at 20:30:01, Nicolas Carrasco wrote: >> >>>Yes, but it is an abuse to play VS a CPU greater than 600 MHz. Those who have >>>that fast machines always have a lagger one. >>> >>>Only my opinion :) >>> >>>On November 13, 1999 at 15:01:56, Bruce Moreland wrote: >>> >>>>On November 13, 1999 at 12:11:19, Nicolas Carrasco wrote: >>>> >>>>>I think that this is a great idea, but for doing a tournament I think all chess >>>>>programs must have the same hardware and how you can detect that at ICC? >>>> >>>>You can't have a uniform event, unless you want to have a bunch of people not >>>>play. Not everyone owns the same compputer. >>>> >>>>bruce
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.