EXchess v7.01 Released

[dchoman]

Hi Everyone,

I've just put EXchess v7.01 up on my website, complete with source code.

http://personal.denison.edu/~homand/EXchess.htm

Improvements over 6.71 include much improved time control (optimized by CLOP) and the ability to play on multiple processors, as well as several bug fixes and a few smaller things. The current build allows up to 4 processors. If you build from source, you can use up to 8 just by changing "MAX_THREADS" in the define.h file, but I have not tested more than 4 processors. If you want more than 8 processors, some other changes to the code are necessary in the file smp.cpp. EXchess should understand the "cores" command from the winboard/xboard protocol, or you can set the number of threads in search.par.

- Dan

[Graham Banks]

Hi Everyone,

I've just put EXchess v7.01 up on my website, complete with source code.

http://personal.denison.edu/~homand/EXchess.htm

Improvements over 6.71 include much improved time control (optimized by CLOP) and the ability to play on multiple processors, as well as several bug fixes and a few smaller things. The current build allows up to 4 processors. If you build from source, you can use up to 8 just by changing "MAX_THREADS" in the define.h file, but I have not tested more than 4 processors. If you want more than 8 processors, some other changes to the code are necessary in the file smp.cpp. EXchess should understand the "cores" command from the winboard/xboard protocol, or you can set the number of threads in search.par.

- Dan

Excellent. Thanks.

[jpqy]

Thanks Dan,

Just great..now someone makes a 4core and a 8core compile version!
And we can start testing EXchess v7.01 MP

JP.

[Joerg Oster]

Hi Dan,

many thanks for sharing.
I'm quite curious how your SMP implementation works. Yet I have so many other things to implement in my engine that it will take months before I can think of SMP.

Best, Joerg.

[dchoman]

Thanks Dan,

Just great..now someone makes a 4core and a 8core compile version!
And we can start testing EXchess v7.01 MP

JP.

Actually, the released version should do 4 cores with no problem, but it will need to recompiled for 8.

- Dan

[Martin Thoresen]

Daniel,

Very cool, you'll be ready for nTCEC Season 2 then.

Best,
Martin

[dchoman]

Hi Dan,

many thanks for sharing.
I'm quite curious how your SMP implementation works. Yet I have so many other things to implement in my engine that it will take months before I can think of SMP.

Best, Joerg.

No worries, I completely understand about being busy!

- Dan

[dchoman]

Thanks Dan,

Just great..now someone makes a 4core and a 8core compile version!
And we can start testing EXchess v7.01 MP

JP.

Actually, the released version should do 4 cores with no problem, but it will need to recompiled for 8.

- Dan

I should probably add that while I have not tested it beyond 4 cores, I suspect the scaling beyond four cores is rather poor given my smp implementation. So I do not expect a big gain in playing strength from more.

- Dan

[dchoman]

Daniel,

Very cool, you'll be ready for nTCEC Season 2 then.

Best,
Martin

Absolutely!

[Martin Thoresen]

I should probably add that while I have not tested it beyond 4 cores, I suspect the scaling beyond four cores is rather poor given my smp implementation. So I do not expect a big gain in playing strength from more.

- Dan

If you have the time and will, I can test 8 and 16 cores for you if you provide builds.

Best,
Martin