Phantom: everything about it finally known

[fern]

After some investigative actions and some deductive work we finally got the following facts about this new unit of Excalibur, due to appear in September.
a) The program is a rework of old Spracklen last Fidelity bath of Match class of computers with a mix of a lot of more recent heuristics and tricks Nelson incorporated from current practice, plus his own valuable experience. Expected Elo: 2150
b) reliable, proven features coming from Alexandra, Avenger, Ivan and Gran Master are used. Voice, selectable opening, "what if", sounds, etc
c) the hardware is an improvement -simplification- of the one used in old Phantom.
d) the company is guessing a very great selling of this unit, kind of CC7 of Fidelity 1979. So the price is the precise to tempt a big mass or purchasers, not only collectors.

If Blincoe has something to add to this almost complete list, welcome.

Sherlock Holmes Regards
Fernando

[Steve B]

also

the computer cones with a nifty dust cover

HypoAllergenic Regards
Steve

[fern]

I knew I Had Forgot something, thanks Steve....

Kathy and Dan send his regards
Fernando

[sje]

One hopes that this isn't vaporware like the earlier announced Excalibur robotic arm chess machine.

If it does get shipped, and if Excalibur can avoid a huge defect rate, then I predict that this will wind up being a big seller. Certainly all of the collectors will be buying.

A clear plastic cover that preserves a position is a necessity for those with inquisitive felines.

It would be nice to be able to interface the machine to a computer without special modification. It may be too much to ask this from Excalibur for the stated selling price.

I note that all high end laptops and all consumer computers from high end companies have Bluetooth capability installed at the factory, and USB plug-in Bluetooth adapters can be had for under US$20. So, I'd expect any gizmo also have Bluetooth capability if it would be useful.

Another idea would be for a dedicated unit to have a USB port for a thumb drive. A 4 GB thumb drive can be had for under US$60 and it could hold a truly humongous opening library, plus be able to store every game played on the unit.

[mclane]

i am not really interested in a phanom machine.
i would be more interested in the spracklen coming back into dedicated units. all i would need would be a sensor chess board with DISPLAY and spracklen program.

if you say the phantom has 2150 ELO, i guess this means US ELO. so in fact it has 2000, or even less, like the 8 bit Mephisto Milano with Ed Schroeder program.

this is of course fossil.

why do those companies not take faster hardware ? The CPUs are not
slow anymore.
they can access big hash.
but those dedicated chess computer companies use hardware of the 80ties to run old 80ties programs on it and want that we buy it.

[fern]

I said 2150 REAL Elo rating, not the US.
In any case, these merchants still use old programs and old hardware to maximize his earnings, that's truth. They are not anymore in a race for get the strongest computer. That appertain to old times. Now they are in a race to survive and sell.
If they could again sell CC7, they would do it.

My best
Fernando

[mclane]

2150 would mean NO 6502- but faster than the old spracklen on 6502.

whatever.

IMO the companies make this wrong. here in germany e.g. we sell cars. do you believe the people, although they only drive 130 or 150 would buy a car with FEW PS ? they buy a small car with 150 PS although IMO a car with 80 PS would be enough for them. similar with the dedicated chess computers. the ones you can buy have only hardware like a 2CV.

[Alainza]

Hi Fernando,

After some investigative actions and some deductive work we finally got the following facts about this new unit of Excalibur, due to appear in September.
a) The program is a rework of old Spracklen last Fidelity bath of Match class of computers with a mix of a lot of more recent heuristics and tricks Nelson incorporated from current practice, plus his own valuable experience. Expected Elo: 2150

this would be very good news...but can it be true ? i.e. can we really expect Ron Nelson to take a program written for 68000 and port it for a new processor, and then to improve this program ?
This is not a critic against his intrinsic abilities but rather some doubts about the time it would take to understand and improve these old programs which were not written in "high level" languages.

Hoping I am wrong regards,
Alain

[mclane]

2150 ??

the ssdf values for Spracklen programs...

Code: Select all

MachIII 68000  16 mhz        1993
MachIV  68020  20mhz         2074
Elite   68030  32mhz v9      2121

if you want more than this value, you would need a fast risc CPU...

P.S.
they should also sell it in a normal dedicated chess computer without robot-system. IMO this would sell many units. i would e.g. buy one too.

[Steve B]

there was also a V10 running on a 68040
http://www.schachcomputer.at/elite10.htm

this was 2179(Selective Search)


note..there is also a V11 but it is not an authorized fidelity so it counts for nothing


also the Sparc is by the Spracklens..2218 (SS) with 1mb
the Sparc 4mb is about 2240


Spracklens Rule Regards
Steve