Why isn't Hiarcs 64bit?

[h1a8]

Why on Earth hasn't Mark utilized 64bit programming in Hiarcs yet? Almost all of today's operating systems are 64bit. 64bit is proven to be faster than 32bit if programmed efficiently enough.

Is it because Mark doesn't know how to do it?
Just study other 64bit programs along with their corresponding 32bit program. But choose the ones to study where there is a big improvement.
Look at the changes to 64bit from 32bit.

Surely Hiarcs would be a lot stronger if it utilize 64bit efficiently enough. After all, it is a commercial program and it is illogical not to achieve this and still be commercial.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

I strongly doubt that the reason is the lack of chess programming skills related to Hiarcs author....

Mark ia a vary talented programmer & honest at the same time....

A rare coin to be found nowadays regards,
Dr.D

[h1a8]

I strongly doubt that the reason is the lack of chess programming skills related to Hiarcs author....

Mark ia a vary talented programmer & honest at the same time....

A rare coin to be found nowadays regards,
Dr.D

Well would you think the reason is? Isn't it more logical to make Hiarcs faster and strong as possible, especially being a commercial program where you always boast on it's strength in the advertisment?

Also Mark did attempt a 64bit version some years ago but it didn't show any significant strength over the 32bit version so he scrapped it.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

I strongly doubt that the reason is the lack of chess programming skills related to Hiarcs author.... Mark ia a vary talented programmer & honest at the same time.... A rare coin to be found nowadays regards, Dr.D

Well would you think the reason is? Isn't it more logical to make Hiarcs faster and strong as possible, especially being a commercial program where you always boast on it's strength in the advertisment? Also Mark did attempt a 64bit version some years ago but it didn't show any significant strength over the 32bit version so he scrapped it.[/quote]

You answered yourself already

[bob]

Why on Earth hasn't Mark utilized 64bit programming in Hiarcs yet? Almost all of today's operating systems are 64bit. 64bit is proven to be faster than 32bit if programmed efficiently enough.

Is it because Mark doesn't know how to do it?
Just study other 64bit programs along with their corresponding 32bit program. But choose the ones to study where there is a big improvement.
Look at the changes to 64bit from 32bit.

Surely Hiarcs would be a lot stronger if it utilize 64bit efficiently enough. After all, it is a commercial program and it is illogical not to achieve this and still be commercial.

No changes are necessary. Just recompile. You get 8 additional registers which will speed up most programs. Unfortunately, you also get 64 bit pointers and such which can slow down some programs. The 64 bit gains come from two things. (1) extra registers and (b) extra bits. This latter is important for bitboard programs since all the 2x32 bit operations become a single 64 bit operation which is more efficient.

But not EVERY program gains because of the pointer/offset issues. The code can get bigger, the cache footprint grows, and instruction length increases due to the opcodes for accessing extra registers and, of course, the larger size of the pointers...

[Harvey Williamson]

Why on Earth hasn't Mark utilized 64bit programming in Hiarcs yet? Almost all of today's operating systems are 64bit. 64bit is proven to be faster than 32bit if programmed efficiently enough.

Is it because Mark doesn't know how to do it?
Just study other 64bit programs along with their corresponding 32bit program. But choose the ones to study where there is a big improvement.
Look at the changes to 64bit from 32bit.

Surely Hiarcs would be a lot stronger if it utilize 64bit efficiently enough. After all, it is a commercial program and it is illogical not to achieve this and still be commercial.

No changes are necessary. Just recompile. You get 8 additional registers which will speed up most programs. Unfortunately, you also get 64 bit pointers and such which can slow down some programs. The 64 bit gains come from two things. (1) extra registers and (b) extra bits. This latter is important for bitboard programs since all the 2x32 bit operations become a single 64 bit operation which is more efficient.

But not EVERY program gains because of the pointer/offset issues. The code can get bigger, the cache footprint grows, and instruction length increases due to the opcodes for accessing extra registers and, of course, the larger size of the pointers...

We have internal 64 bit versions that we have used in tournaments so we can use a much larger hash table.

we did release a 64 bit version in the past.

However just like Shredder and Junior it does not show any real gain so we would rather not release something that might be +/- 1 elo.

It would be a major rewrite to take full advantage of 64bit. Something that is on the very long to do list. Many/most customers still have a 32 bit os.

[Sean Evans]

Why on Earth hasn't Mark utilized 64bit programming in Hiarcs yet? Almost all of today's operating systems are 64bit. 64bit is proven to be faster than 32bit if programmed efficiently enough.

Is it because Mark doesn't know how to do it?
Just study other 64bit programs along with their corresponding 32bit program. But choose the ones to study where there is a big improvement.
Look at the changes to 64bit from 32bit.

Surely Hiarcs would be a lot stronger if it utilize 64bit efficiently enough. After all, it is a commercial program and it is illogical not to achieve this and still be commercial.

No changes are necessary. Just recompile. You get 8 additional registers which will speed up most programs. Unfortunately, you also get 64 bit pointers and such which can slow down some programs. The 64 bit gains come from two things. (1) extra registers and (b) extra bits. This latter is important for bitboard programs since all the 2x32 bit operations become a single 64 bit operation which is more efficient.

But not EVERY program gains because of the pointer/offset issues. The code can get bigger, the cache footprint grows, and instruction length increases due to the opcodes for accessing extra registers and, of course, the larger size of the pointers...

We have internal 64 bit versions that we have used in tournaments so we can use a much larger hash table.

we did release a 64 bit version in the past.

However just like Shredder and Junior it does not show any real gain so we would rather not release something that might be +/- 1 elo.

It would be a major rewrite to take full advantage of 64bit. Something that is on the very long to do list,

No problem, then Hiarcs is on my very long to list to buy it!

[Harvey Williamson]

No problem, then Hiarcs is on my very long to list to buy it!

I will not sleep tonight now I know this.

[Terry McCracken]

No problem, then Hiarcs is on my very long to list to buy it!

I will not sleep tonight now I know this.

[gerold]

No problem, then Hiarcs is on my very long to list to buy it!

I will not sleep tonight now I know this.

Business is business no matter where it comes from.