limiting cpu load by uci option (stockfish, komodo etc.)

[Mercutio111]

I would like to suggest an additional uci engine option: cpu load in percentage. I found it realized only in the uci options of Deep Hiarcs.

If you are using a mobile device (i.e. notebook, tablet pc, smartphone) limiting the cpu load of an engine will help to extend battery life and thereby time of usage dramatically. The strength of an in this manner limited engine is often more than enough for checking blunders or for general analysis.

Furthermore it will help you to have more fun playing against an otherwise unbeatable engine. Limiting the strength to 1 percent or even 0,1 percent could thereby achieve two helpful improvements.

Is anything similar planned within the leading engines?

Best regards
Axel

[hgm]

This seems more a GUI task than an engine task. It doesn't seem very useful to have an engine run just a fraction of the time; you can just make it run shorter. In games you would just specify a faster time control for the engine. If you like your time to be wasted you could have the GUI disguise this by having it show what the engine did only after some delay.

In analysis it is a bit trickier, because normally you have the opportunity to make the analysis going as deep as you want, by just letting it run longer. But you could specify a depth limit to the analysis, so that the engine shuts off when it reaches this depth,omatter how much time you need to stare at the display afterwards to interpret the result. If you are not happy with the result (which normally would make you wait longer for a line with better depth to come in), there could be a button to start a search that goes one ply deeper than the previous one.

[Mercutio111]

Thank you for your reply. Whether it will be a gui or an engine task doesn’t matter for me. Your suggestions sure will work - but for me they don't seem comfortable because a seamless analysis will not be possible like this.
Nevertheless, you gave me some hints to try out.