Comments on the Revelation II dedicated chess computer

[sje]

Perhaps each Revelation II unit could be delivered with a personalized, engraved plate as did the Fidelity Elite Champion of long ago:



A serial number was inscribed on a metallic sticker on the underside of each unit.

See: http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/fid ... mpion.html

[Steve B]

Rev II invoices have gone out this evening
between the board,piece set,Emulation add-on,and Carrybags
this is Not an inexpensive computer i can tell you that
Looks like my "Fine Dining" budget is shot for the rest of the year

Macdonalds Happy Meals Regards
Steve

[Wardy]

Awesome news that your machine is coming...........even if the invoice lands with a thud! I'd hazzard a guess that you've ordered the same as me........I'm almost glad that mine will likely land the other side of Xmas as I haven't managed to get my timepieces up for sale yet!

Looking forward to your thoughts and lots of pictures to tide me over till #64 lands.

[Steve B]

Awesome news that your machine is coming...........even if the invoice lands with a thud! I'd hazzard a guess that you've ordered the same as me........I'm almost glad that mine will likely land the other side of Xmas as I haven't managed to get my timepieces up for sale yet!

Looking forward to your thoughts and lots of pictures to tide me over till #64 lands.

Will Do Paul
Clearing the desk for the REV II's arrival Regards
Steve

[paulhuk]

Hi Steve, exciting news indeed. Paul's serial number #64 made me feel a bit better as mine is #38. Still looking at a Jan/Feb delivery I guess. You must tell us all about your impressions and experience of this unique machine hopefully before Christmas.

Drooling regards,

Paul H

[chesspcmac]

http://www.revelationii.com/

go here to ->> download -->>PDF manual for the revelation

Mike

[sje]

Some details of the Revelation II PXA320 CPU

The PXA320CPU is made by Marvell Semiconductor, a multinational company specializing in low power processors for embedded systems.

http://www.marvell.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvell_Technology_Group

Marvell is currently facing a US$1+ billion dollar judgment for patent infringement, the largest such award on record. How this might affect future operations is unknown.

You may already have a PXA320 or one of its kin in your cell phone, smart TV, or GPS navigator.

The design of the PXA320 in the Revelation II comes from Intel's Xscale/ARM technology. The CPU's registers for addressing are 32 bits wide; this limits address space to 4 GB, not a problem for most chess programs. However, because there is no hardware support for single instruction 64 operations, a bitboard chess program will take a significant performance hit on a PXA320 vs a native 64 bit host. How much of a hit? It depends on the program. A typical bitboard program might see a 50% speed improvement when moving from a 32 bit to a 64 bit host.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale

Of interest to developers is that the PXA320 has a complete tool chain for making applications targeted towards Linux or Microsoft operating systems. I would guess that the Revelation II is running a well hidden Linux. A well written Linux chess program which doesn't make too many assumptions about the available I/O should be easy to port.

[chesspcmac]

Well, im glad to hear that some of the "Rud rev2 " are going to be shipped very soon. At the same time I have a bitter sweet taste in my mouth knowing that I have been waiting for this chess computer for two years and now I find out that some people who were not waiting like us got them and will get them first. It makes no sense to me. My number is 23 so because DGT sold some "Dgt rev 2" now I have to wait until 2014. if I was taking part in a fair system I would have gotten mine around christmas. I understand Steve frustration because from a collectors point of view who has the number 2?
All this time I have been answering emails to Rudd as soon as i got them to show my interest, to show that my comminment was real. But now some people have jump in front of me and now i'll have to wait until jan 2014 or who knows maybe until feb or march 2014. I truly dont think Rudd is to blame here, i place most of the blame on Dgt, but still I cant get rid of this crappy taste in my mouth.

Mike "23" ...... Well .... Not really

Crappy taste in mouth regards

Guys,

Please bear with me...

There are three Ruuds going on here. Three Ruuds who all want the best for the community, the pre-orderes and most of all wants to enjoy the creating, developing and fun in this quest. Ruud is still trying to adjust to these three different roles he has to fulfill.

1. The 'man' Ruud who likes the chesscomputer scene with very much passion. And who cares about a lott of things going on in this scene as he started out 8 years ago with his hobby and a goal. Building great systems.

2. Since three years the guy Ruud (now started with Phoenix Chess Systems) who has teamed up with DGT to develop a Revelation II system combining both worlds to get the added value from DGT in the systems. DGT is in this cooperation the company who will manufacture the systems and deliver them to the shops in the world.

3. Phoenix Chess Systems as a 'familair and well know seller/shop' to deliver the systems Phoenix gets from DGT. And in this way to all pre-orderers from the last two years who signed up to me in a request to get the system. And in this they all are supporting the projects.

Maybe it is not apparent, but not only i myself have been asking DGT for part of the stock which is now available or in creation, but also a lot of other shops who reserved systems at DGT back in 2012 and in 2013. So it is possible that a shop can sell the system with small stock in december even though my customers have pre-ordered during the last two years.

If you guys ordered in 2012 and 2013, so did some of the shops during this 1,5 years to get their hands on the systems.

With DGT i have setup a delivery scheme in which i was looking at the commitment i made to my pre-orderers and at the same time giving all interested shops in the world also their fair possibilities. This based upon my pre-ordering and the pre-ordering from the shops.

I'll do my utter best to get the systems as soon as available to Phoenix Chess Systems to you guys, buy please bear with me in this.

All pre-orderers are getting their systems as soon as they are available to me and on a fair delivery scheme. No need to think that things are not done in the correct order, i am looking very sharp in this, and i regret this one system which slipped trough. I have spoken a month ago already with DGT regarding this thing and that for me it is important to be very correct towards all parties and my customers who are eagerly awaiting these systems.

Hope this will give the correct perspective on matters.

Hi Rudd: Your explanation cleared the air!! I wish you lots of success with this project and dream. All I hear is good things about you.

waiting for my "baby" regards


Mike 23

[Steve B]

It is interesting to see what the future will hold
As it turns out there are two separate releases for the REV II
The Phoenix Rev ll with its own unique Serial numbers
and the DGT Rev ll and its own unique Serial numbers

NO DGT Rev ll's will be sold with the emulations pre-loaded and they will not have the hand written serial number certificate by Phoenix

the distinction between the two different systems might turn out to be meaningless ..or ..from a Collecting standpoint.. the Phoenix Rev ll's might turn out to be far more desirable by collectors

Only Time Will Tell Regards
Steve

[sje]

The allure of a low serial number:

I guess that I don't understand the allure of having a low serial number on just about any product. Is it not sufficient to have acquired and preserved a unit which is already fairly exclusive because of its limited production?

Yet this happens, and not only for chess computers. I know from my time in Massachusetts that car owners were ready to trade political support or bribes to obtain special license plates which had only two or three digits.

In the field of numismatics, there are collectors who'll value two coins differently by a factor of thousands; two coins identical in all aspects expect for the position of a few micrograms of metal forming the mint mark or the year of issue. The phrase which comes to mind is "a distinction without a difference".

However, I'm not saying that a wanting a low serial number is bad thing. It could be a very profitable attitude for buying hardware which is intended as an investment.

[Steve B]

The allure of a low serial number:

I guess that I don't understand the allure of having a low serial number on just about any product.

"Lower" is always worth more then "higher" in the collecting world
"earlier" is always more desirable then "later"
First Edition books are always worth more then later editions ..even though from a readability standpoint later editions will have errors corrected and updated information..etc..etc

i have two of the Fidelity Champion Elite challengers with the gold plaque that you posted about earlier...one has an unmarked plaque(about 10% of Elites were sold with blank Plaques)
my other one is number 399
if it were number 1 it would be worth much much more

XXX Hardcore Collecting Regards
Steve

[sje]

A potential certification problem:

Looking at the Revelation II user manual, I've missed any reference to the certification of the model by the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) as being compliant with RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) regulations. My understanding is that any electronic equipment which emits RF energy must have such certification.

You'll find that all or nearly all consumer electronic products sold in the US have an FCC RFI classification and certification. I don't believe that having an EU certification is sufficient.

[Steve B]

A potential certification problem:

Looking at the Revelation II user manual, I've missed any reference to the certification of the model by the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) as being compliant with RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) regulations. My understanding is that any electronic equipment which emits RF energy must have such certification.

You'll find that all or nearly all consumer electronic products sold in the US have an FCC RFI classification and certification. I don't believe that having an EU certification is sufficient.

the online manual is not a final manual
but if there is a US certification problem..this would be good
make them more valuable ..
any unusual mistakes makes an item more valuable
take this Omikron Bogol 5.0 chess computer
the board was actually made with colors reversed
worth alot of money..

Bogol is on the left..



the inverted Jenny Stamp is worth millions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny

mistakes made in originally released items are to be distinguished from modifications made to originally released items
modifications basically lower the value of an item depending on the extent of the modification ..sometimes rendering them practically worthless

Errors are Good Regards
Steve

[sje]

The need for FCC RFI certification began in earnest back in the 1970s when the home computer phenomenon started and most Americans watched broadcast television instead of cable TV. Back then, a single Altair 8800 or Apple I would emit a boatload of RFI on the commercial TV bands and wipe out reception for many apartments close to the one with a running computer. Much unhappiness ensued.

[Mars]

... serial number #64 made me feel a bit better...

Wondering how many Rev II units will be sold. I would have guessed far less than 50 but that's apparently not true...

It is interesting to see what the future will hold
As it turns out there are two separate releases for the REV II
The Phoenix Rev ll with its own unique Serial numbers
and the DGT Rev ll and its own unique Serial numbers

NO DGT Rev ll's will be sold with the emulations pre-loaded and they will not have the hand written serial number certificate by Phoenix

the distinction between the two different systems might turn out to be meaningless ..or ..from a Collecting standpoint.. the Phoenix Rev ll's might turn out to be far more desirable by collectors

Only Time Will Tell Regards
Steve

Hmm. If there will be far less DGT Rev IIs than Phoenix Rev IIs... those could end up to be the more valuable at some distant point in future...

What Is True Value Regards,
Martin