Dedicated chess computers on the servers

[sje]

Of course there are many players on ICS and FICS that are computer programs, but how many server players are dedicated chess computers?

The obvious starting point is having a dedicated unit that has some sort of PC interface. From there one would need some driver software that would connect the machine to a chess server client like xboard running on a local box.

Other than the Novag Citrine and its close cousins, are there any other currently produced dedicated units that have a PC interface?

I wonder if the folks at ICC would pony up a free account for someone with a dedicated unit. It seems to me that this would be a net benefit as it would draw interest from the potential purchaser crowd.

[Steve B]

Other than the Novag Citrine and its close cousins, are there any other currently produced dedicated units that have a PC interface?

Currently produced?
no

there were several computers from the past that tinkered with the idea of PC connections but not really to play online

here is a combined dedicated computer and PC
it is very rare and was called the "Bridge between the PC and the Dedicated

it ran Richard Langs Genius 3 Program
the Mephisto Wonder Machine
i do not own this very rare bird:
http://www.schachcomputer.at/wundermaschine2.jpg

PCPA Regards
Steve

[CRoberson]

Years ago, a Novag Sapphire and Sapphire 2 ran on FICS and ICC.
It used to beat NoonianChess and I often wondered how they put it
on ICC. I was guessing software that worked with ICC and had an
Auto232 interface.

I noticed (minutes ago) that the Novag Sapphire II has a telephone type
plug in it. Don't know what its for yet.

[mclane]

you can make the Star Diamond/sapphire running as UCI engines ...

[sje]

It seems to me that none of the dedicated units had any custom chips, so it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse engineer a unit's functionality. The exception is if a single CPU/ROM chip is being used and the mask has been set to disallow ROM probing. Otherwise, single modern desktop could emulate a dozen dedicated units without a problem.

So, even units without a serial port could still be run on the servers.

[Steve B]

you can make the Star Diamond/sapphire running as UCI engines ...

yes
but Charles mentioned the Citrine and its "Cousins" so i took this to mean all Novag computers with the PC Interface(Super Vip ,Sapphire I and II,Star Sapphire Star Diamond..etc etc)
also neither The Sd or SS are currently available which i take to mean still being sold as new

literally regards
Steve

[Steve B]

yes but Charles mentioned

oops make that ...Steve Mentioned
Proofreading Regards
Steve

[IanO]

Years ago, a Novag Sapphire and Sapphire 2 ran on FICS and ICC.

I noticed (minutes ago) that the Novag Sapphire II has a telephone type
plug in it. Don't know what its for yet.

I ran SapphireII on FICS. (Wow, almost exactly ten years ago... my how the time flies...) It achieved about 2000 at blitz, 2050 standard, and 2200 lightning. Blitz was lower than one would expect, because it kept getting stomped by real computers (crafty clones at the time).

The plug exposes an RS-232 interface (specs here). I bought the Novag Distributor and wrote a custom shim between the serial port/Novag protocol and WinBoard engine protocol. I haven't used a PC for a while, so to play it online again I'd need to get a USB-serial adapter and recode the shim for OS X + XBoard. (Are there any Cocoa native FICS interfaces for the Mac?)

Ian

[TonyJH]

This probably isn't what you're looking for, but I think it's interesting that this account ran on a Linksys WRT54G router (on FICS).

Code: Select all

Finger of Sjeng:

Last disconnected: Sun Nov 28, 18:53 CST 2004

          rating     RD      win    loss    draw   total   best
Blitz      2026    265.3    3933    1489     364    5786   2251 (12-Jul-2001)
Standard   2243    246.7     842     288      52    1182   2246 (19-Sep-2004)
Lightning  2024    267.9     345     270      38     653   2493 (14-Jan-2002)
Bughouse   1604    350.0     417     502       2     921   1942 (26-Nov-2000)
Crazyhouse 2274    350.0    2775    1310      11    4096   2530 (29-Jun-2001)
Suicide    2579    346.9     852     190      31    1073   2642 (17-Jul-2002)

 1: Deep Sjeng MIPS 0.2 (Jun  9 2004)
 2: --
 3: Running on a Linksys WRT54G v2 wireless router. It has the same knowledge as the full Deep Sjeng, but this hardware is very slow.
 4: -
 5: Older versions of Sjeng are freely available on http://www.sjeng.org
 6: Deep Sjeng is a commercial product from Lokasoft: http://lokasoft.nl/uk/deepsjengintro.htm
 7: -
 8: Embedded MIPS-1 200Mhz CPU, 1.6M hash, 2M book
 9: -
10: Generally running unattended. Owner is Garf.

[CRoberson]

Years ago, a Novag Sapphire and Sapphire 2 ran on FICS and ICC.

I noticed (minutes ago) that the Novag Sapphire II has a telephone type
plug in it. Don't know what its for yet.

I ran SapphireII on FICS. (Wow, almost exactly ten years ago... my how the time flies...) It achieved about 2000 at blitz, 2050 standard, and 2200 lightning. Blitz was lower than one would expect, because it kept getting stomped by real computers (crafty clones at the time).

The plug exposes an RS-232 interface (specs here). I bought the Novag Distributor and wrote a custom shim between the serial port/Novag protocol and WinBoard engine protocol. I haven't used a PC for a while, so to play it online again I'd need to get a USB-serial adapter and recode the shim for OS X + XBoard. (Are there any Cocoa native FICS interfaces for the Mac?)

Ian

Now, that is amazing. You were the one doing that and you live in Portland. At the time, I lived in Hillsboro - just up the road from you.