Author: Steve B
Date: 17:09:03 03/01/05
In 1989 Fidelity released the only Dual Processor Chess computers ever made the Elite A/G version 5(Dual 68000) and the version 8(Dual 68020) exactly 50 units of each were produced in going over the manual for the dual processor Elites i came across an interesting factoid a rather lengthy and technical addendum is inserted in the manual written and signed by the programming team of Dan and Kathe Spracklen they discuss how the dual processors do not provide a 2x speed up which would be ideal,but rather a 1.7 speed up they attributed this loss of speed up to several "overhead" factors such as: Communication Overhead Synchronization Overhead Divided Search Overhead and Split Hash Overhead they provided a new feature for the computer whereby a user could turn off the dual processors leaving the one they then suggested to try different positions to see what actual speed ups could be achieved the maximum speed up they saw was 1.7 times i dont know if a current "off the shelf" Dual Processor PC allows the user to turn off one of the processors,but if so,i wonder..for todays dual processor PC'S what the speed up achieved is? i imagine it could not be the ideal 2x as there must be something lost to some operating processes for example using the two processors how long does the computer take to achieve say a 15 ply search as opposed to the one processor? Double Best Regards Steve
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