this week I had contact to Niggemann (http://www.schach-niggemann.de/) and asked them about program errors and version and future outlook for Le Citrine. In addition, one of our guys at schachcomputer.info visited them to do the version upgrade "online" in their shop. Here comes a brief summary:
1/ Actually the Citrine is SOLD OUT at least in their shop, Niggemann expects to get new machines in May
2/ Novag released three program versions so far, the latest being version 1.07 (first was 1.01). According to our collegue all errors from Version 1.01 (which he had) are fixed yet. Versions can be read out via PC interface (command "i" I guess). By the way, Niggemann so far was not aware of any opening book errors (Although I agree that being out of book after 1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3.e5, as reported elsewhere, looks like a bug, but keep in mind that Novag never ever realized opening transposition in their programs).
3/ It is not clear whether or not there will be a further updates in the near future in terms of program improvement new or feature implementation
4/ It looks like that the program upgrade is not complicated and can be done via jumper switching on the Citrine board and connection to a PC (via the delivered serial cable?). Of course, you would need a special flash program for the EPROM, which I guess is interlectual property of Novag and is very likely only given to business partners.
5/ There are rumours that the arena team (http://www.playwitharena.com/) is going to develop a UCI driver for the Citrine for the Arena database, so that that board can be used for chess program playing (like the former UCB) as interface. So did already our friend Alain Zanchetta (but I guess its still beta... Alain?) for the chessbase GUI.
Hoping to light up the dark a little regards
Stefan
that open chess. on Caron Kann not it´s good for style computers, you can do a lot of lines of this line of caro kan... but Citrines lost a lot of games.. because close position and horizon plys... I this lines book need more memory and CITRINES cost is cheap because have all program in one chip... cpu.