Comments on the Revelation II dedicated chess computer

paulhuk · Post by **paulhuk** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:48 am

Wardy, what kind of masochist would want to overclock a computer already running chess programs capable of the super grandmaster level of play? Beats the hell out of me. I just hope I can tame the beast sufficiently to get balanced and interesting games.

In fear and trembling regards,

PaulH

Post by **Steve B** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:37 am

Wardy wrote:Someone is bound to try and overclock? Mod guy maybe?!!!

Uci engines on the Rev? You can utilise any uci engine compiled for windows?

theoretically Yes
but some engines will work fine..others.. not at all
anyway..thats not really my bag
I fooled around with the UCI engines a bit but quickly grew bored to tears and swiftly returned to the safe harbor of the onboard engines and emulations

Home Sweet Home Regards
Steve

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:38 am

Just thinking out loud really, the chipset is quite old now and the production process seems to allow quite a bit of headroom and it's easily accessed too......... of course the lifecycle is likely reduced.

Admittedly the extra elo it might offer would be overkill for me, heck the way I'm playing at the moment the top 1000 elo is superfluous!

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:39 am

Steve B wrote:
Wardy wrote:Someone is bound to try and overclock? Mod guy maybe?!!!

Uci engines on the Rev? You can utilise any uci engine compiled for windows?
theoretically Yes
but some engines will work fine..others.. not at all
anyway..thats not really my bag
I fooled around with the UCI engines a bit but quickly grew bored to tears and swiftly returned to safe harbor of the onboard engines and emulations

Home Sweet Home Regards
Steve

I'm expecting to spend most of my time buried in the emulations too. Especially now with the speedbar etc

Post by **Steve B** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 11:43 am

Wardy wrote:
Steve B wrote:
Wardy wrote:Someone is bound to try and overclock? Mod guy maybe?!!!

Uci engines on the Rev? You can utilise any uci engine compiled for windows?
theoretically Yes
but some engines will work fine..others.. not at all
anyway..thats not really my bag
I fooled around with the UCI engines a bit but quickly grew bored to tears and swiftly returned to safe harbor of the onboard engines and emulations

Home Sweet Home Regards
Steve
I'm expecting to spend most of my time buried in the emulations too. Especially now with the speedbar etc

I posted a nice study of the Emulations here a few years ago
I compared the clock speeds to the actual modules
one by one...
they generally ran at about 2x the speed of the modules
I think the speed ups will be a bit faster in the Rev II

Emulating Regards
Steve

paulhuk · Post by **paulhuk** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 1:00 pm

Some very helpful work there Steve. For those interested, here is the full 'Richard Lang on Steroids' thread which is well worth the read. I think the relevant link is:

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic. ... =emulation.

I know its early days but do you have any plans to compare the new Rev II emulations with the originals?

Thanks,

PaulH

Post by **Steve B** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 1:57 pm

paulhuk wrote:Some very helpful work there Steve. For those interested, here is the full 'Richard Lang on Steroids' thread which is well worth the read. I think the relevant link is:

http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic. ... =emulation.

I know its early days but do you have any plans to compare the new Rev II emulations with the originals?

Thanks,

PaulH

Thanks for digging that thread up Paul
31/2 years ago..wow time does fly
as does my diminishing hair line and ever expanding waste line
sigh..anyway..

sure I guess ill compare the new Rev II emulations against the actual modules and dedicated computers

first order of business though will be to pit Hiarcs 14 Rev ll Against The Rev ll Schredder
not sure how I can do that ..I guess I will need some other Rev II owner to agree to a match
Hiarcs 14 in the Rev ll should be the strongest chess entity ever released in a dedicated computer...of all time

Historical Regards
Steve

Mars · Post by **Mars** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:58 pm

Yes - but for me the Glasgow emulation is the most interesting one. Anything beyond 2400 is overkill anyway. Another interesting thing would be "King Black" from Fritz and Chesterl. Or some other engine which is playable by kids...

Getting old regards,
Martin

Post by **Steve B** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:50 pm

Mars wrote:Yes - but for me the Glasgow emulation is the most interesting one. Anything beyond 2400 is overkill anyway. Another interesting thing would be "King Black" from Fritz and Chesterl. Or some other engine which is playable by kids...

Getting old regards,
Martin

As usual your too modest Martin
i recall quite clearly your participation in the Hiarcs team games played here a few years ago
it was obvious to even a casual observer that you were a strong OTB player
i am sure you would slaughter the Glasgow program in a match
no matter what the clock speed

Just Callin it the way it is Regards
Steve

Mars · Post by **Mars** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 10:45 pm

Steve B wrote: As usual your too modest Martin
i recall quite clearly your participation in the Hiarcs team games played here a few years ago

Not bad, you remember those very interesting games... Well, very kind but to see how much we - that is my ole' dedicated units and I - are already rusting, I used the last hour to play three blitz games: vs Super Conny, Novag Diablo and Tasc R30.

Phew... Luckily we all worked flawlessly. To some degree at least... lost to the strongest of them very clearly... Tomorrow gonna check some of the Mephistos and Fidelities in the attic again.

Late Night But Not Oxidated Regards,
Martin

Mythbuster · Post by **Mythbuster** » Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:41 am

@Mars: The Glasgow should reach now the 2.100 mark on our Elo list ... but it dosen't matter, because with the speed bar you can slow it down to around 1.750 Elo ... so it should offer fun even to 'normal' players ...

A real beast is now the London ... we think he will land around 2.300 Elos, maybe even 2.350 ...

By the way, since last Friday I have my 'final version' (some things, even in the hardware and woodwork changed) ... so it's time for a small review ... http://www.schachcomputer.info/forum/f2 ... -4648.html

It's written in German but maybe Google translation will help you out guys ...

By the way, if you have any questions about the machine, please feel free ...

Monday morning Regards,
Sascha

Mars · Post by **Mars** » Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:32 am

Sascha, thank you for the link - an intriguing report which increases the impatience significantly...

Regarding Meph. London: Of course this is a matter of taste but since I already have the strong London module (a slower one, granted) this is not the main emu I'm waiting for too eagerly. Although I have the Glasgow already as well, this is much more interesting to me simply because the speed increase makes it a better playable opponent!

Looking forward to test them all regards,
Martin

sje · Post by **sje** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:51 am

From my 15 point list back on page 3 of this topic, which of those features do you think will be most likely to make it into a Revelation III?

My three guesses:

I think that the voice output will be there, for such was a feature on several dedicated models starting with Fidelity's Chess Challenger Voice from 1979. For a suggested implementation method, see my topic on voice synthesis.

I also think that a color LCD touch screen will replace the monochrome OLED display and the six button control pad. This would give much flexibility for a reasonable price, and it could also be run in Revelation II compatibility mode.

Not mentioned in the list but still a likely improvement would be the addition of a couple of SD card slots. One SD card could easily hold every GM game ever played while another could be used to store tablebases.

Mars · Post by **Mars** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 11:28 pm

sje wrote:From my 15 point list back on page 3 of this topic, which of those features do you think will be most likely to make it into a Revelation III?

My three guesses:

I think that the voice output will be there, for such was a feature on several dedicated models starting with Fidelity's Chess Challenger Voice from 1979. For a suggested implementation method, see my topic on voice synthesis.

I also think that a color LCD touch screen will replace the monochrome OLED display and the six button control pad. This would give much flexibility for a reasonable price, and it could also be run in Revelation II compatibility mode.

Not mentioned in the list but still a likely improvement would be the addition of a couple of SD card slots. One SD card could easily hold every GM game ever played while another could be used to store tablebases.

Don't think we really need a voice in there...

Nowadays I think babbling during OTB play is as politically incorrect as smoking... No, not really on my wish list.

A touch screen would be nice, agree on that. But it would be also pure dedicated experience to have the possibility to let the display disappear under the board (think Mephisto Munich or Exclusive).

SD slots - hmm... yes, to be able to store played games in pgn on SD (or USB) could be a useful addition. But really outstanding would be if we could read/load UCI programs from there!

Flexibility rules regards,
Martin

Bryan Whitby · Post by **Bryan Whitby** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:01 pm

Revelation II now being sold on eBay.de with piece set option.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Revelation-II-/2 ... 3f2c4ff4f7

Pre Order Regards
Bryan