It's not easy to code an engine that scales well to a cluster. In 2008 I ahd access to 1024 cores, but the cluster code I wrote at the time only scaled to 32 cores (4 machines, 8 cores each). That code no longer exists, and I have access to a single 16-core machine, so I can't currently run on clusters. With limited development time, I'd rather work on making the core algorithm stronger, than writing cluster code.
I think it would interesting to have a slow tournament with a fixed maximum number of cores (4 or 8, since they are readily available). David > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:computer-go- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Detlef Schmicker > Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 1:44 PM > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Computer-go] September KGS bot tournament: 19x19, slow > > Thanks Nick, > > I love the slow bot tournaments. > Two reasons: > > 1) For me computer go is a hobby and to hire 6 cluster instances on EC2 > is about 150$ for a tournament. 3 tournaments one i7-4770k:) > > 2) Not all programs can handle clusters. It is an additional problem for > authors, which are trying to get into this business. And I can tell you, > it is difficult enough to get into it:) > > If you look at the last slow bot tournaments only few programs (gomorra, > orego and zen) used clusters, maybe partly because of this reasons. > > Detlef > > Am Sonntag, den 01.09.2013, 20:00 +0100 schrieb Nick Wedd: > > The September KGS bot tournament will start at 22:00 UTC on Sunday > > September 8th, and end by 22:00 UTC on Tuesday August 10th. > > > > It will have 6 rounds, Swiss, with 19x19 boards. The time limits will > > be three hours each, sudden death. The komi will be 7.5. There are > > details at http://www.gokgs.com/tournInfo.jsp?id=835 . > > > > Please register by emailing me, with the words "KGS Tournament > > Registration" in the email title, at [email protected] . > > > > This may be the last "slow" tournament, with time limits of over an > > hour each, that I run. Now that cloud computing is easily available, I > > believe that there is little purpose in setting such slow time limits. > > If you want to see how a bot does given a lot of thinking time, it > > makes more sense to hire multiple processors than to let it run for a > > long time. (If you think I am wrong, you can probably convince me of > > it.) > > > > Nick > > > _______________________________________________ > Computer-go mailing list > [email protected] > http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
