Other cores not being used

[Audmeister]

Hello, I don't know what is going on. I have been operating some engines for a while now and should know what is going on, but do not.

I use polyglot and winboard to connect online to play some games. The engines work and play, but some SMP engines do not use the max cores that I tell it to.

For instance, I have this in the .ini file for polyglot to read.

[Engine]
Hash=128
Threads=8
Split_Depth=10
Ponder=true
Contempt=1
Analysis_Contempt=false
MultiPV=1
GaviotaTbPath=<empty>
GaviotaTbCache=64
Hard_Probe_Depth=24
Soft_Probe_Depth=16

But when I look at the task manager, it only uses 1 core, or 25% or CPU.... What is going on? Is polyglot not reading it correctly?

[michiguel]

Hello, I don't know what is going on. I have been operating some engines for a while now and should know what is going on, but do not.

I use polyglot and winboard to connect online to play some games. The engines work and play, but some SMP engines do not use the max cores that I tell it to.

For instance, I have this in the .ini file for polyglot to read.

[Engine]
Hash=128
Threads=8
Split_Depth=10
Ponder=true
Contempt=1
Analysis_Contempt=false
MultiPV=1
GaviotaTbPath=<empty>
GaviotaTbCache=64
Hard_Probe_Depth=24
Soft_Probe_Depth=16

But when I look at the task manager, it only uses 1 core, or 25% or CPU.... What is going on? Is polyglot not reading it correctly?

I guess, you may need to run winboard with

-smpCores number
Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use. Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-protocol cores feature.

or set that in "common" engine parameters.

Miguel

[Audmeister]

Thanks for the reply.

So you would think its a Winboard problem? I am using 4.5.2... How would I do what you just said? I am pretty newbie to any programming

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out! Thanks Miguel

I put an engine on Arena, and have the same parameters, and works correctly...

[michiguel]

Thanks for the reply.

So you would think its a Winboard problem? I am using 4.5.2... How would I do what you just said? I am pretty newbie to any programming

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out! Thanks Miguel

I put an engine on Arena, and have the same parameters, and works correctly...

It is not a winboard problem, it is a feature but it could be confusing if people are accustomed to micromanage each engine individually (you are not the first one to ask this question). In other words, you can tell how many cores are available from the GUI, and that will inform all engines at once.

Miguel


Miguel

[hgm]

If you ask WinBoardtorun the engine with only 1 core, and then it runs with 1 core, it is NOT a WinBoard problem.

It is in fact a USER ERROR to set the number of cores to 1 when you want it to run with more cores...

Arena does run engines with 1 core when you ask it to run them with 1 core, right? Otherwise itwould be an Arena problem.

[Desperado]

... Otherwise itwould be an Arena problem.

you dont miss a single chance !?

[hgm]

Well, I was not the first to compare WinBoard with Arena in this thread. I only correctthe allegation that when WinBoard does something exactly like Arena (or any other GUI) does it, it would somehow be a WinBoard 'problem', and using Arena would 'fix' it.

I am not saying anything negative about Arena, as I am pretty sure it would also give you the number of cores that you ask for.

[Audmeister]

Well I understand that, I just didnt know I had to have -smpCore in the command line to have it set... I have always just used the .ini file that polyglot reads to set the number of cores...

I guess the newer versions of Winboard has it and I didn't know. Thanks for the help!

[hgm]

Well, normally you would set it from the menu (Options-> CommonEngine -> Max nr CPU). And it would be stored in the settings file, so as long as you don't want to change it, you would never have to bother with it again.

Same with hash-table size, btw; be sure WB also is given the correct value for that.