a universal accelerator for 6502

[ydebilloez]

I came across an interesting project whose aim is to improve old chess computers.

http://www.e-basteln.de/computing/65f02/65f02/

We have focused on Mephisto chess computers first, since these are at the center of Roland’s collector’s interest. But many others are on the wishlist, including Fidelity (Elite A/S Budapest and Glasgow, Prestige, Avantgarde), Novag (Super Constellation, Super Expert C), SciSys (Turbostar), …

[mclane]

I have such a tiny replacement in my Novag Constellation Expert.

I tried it out in the mm5 and polgar and nigel short and it worked very well.
Finally i thought the wooden Expert deserves it the most.

[daniel71]

I have Chess Genius by Richard Lang on my cellphone now, no accelerator needed. He has a website and my favorite classic engine that I still enjoy. Worth the $5 I paid for the app.

[AdminX]

I have Chess Genius by Richard Lang on my cellphone now, no accelerator needed. He has a website and my favorite classic engine that I still enjoy. Worth the $5 I paid for the app.

If only the engine (Chess Genius) on your phone could be used outside of it's GUI, like say with the White Pawn app for Android or IOS. Then we could use it with our Smart Chessboards as well. Still I think its cool that these classics can now have a boost!

[pohl4711]

I own 2 of these 100MHz 6502 chips and have a 100MHz Milano and a 100 MHz Polgar - just awesome.

I played with an emulated Milano 100 Mhz vs. other emulated Computers (default speed) ("https://fhub.jimdofree.com/") in Arena, using the MessEmu by Franz Huber. 450 games. Level: around 30sec per move. The result was this:

Code: Select all

     Program                            Elo    +    -   Games   Score   Av.Op.  Draws

   1 Tasc R30 (The King 2.20)         : 2356    2    2    50    59.0 %   2303    2.0 %
   2 Tasc R30 (Gideon 2.1)            : 2320    2    2    50    51.0 %   2303   54.0 %
   3 Milano 1.02 Turbo 100 MHz        : 2303   21   21   450    57.9 %   2245   23.8 %
   4 Mephisto TM Lyon 68030           : 2297    2    2    50    67.0 %   2303   26.0 %
   5 Mephisto TM Portorose 68030      : 2273    2    2    50    14.0 %   2303   16.0 %
   6 Mephisto Montreux v1.00          : 2256    2    2    50    64.0 %   2303    4.0 %
   7 Saitek RISC 2500 v1.04           : 2239    2    2    50    50.0 %   2303   56.0 %
   8 Fidelity Elite Avantgarde V10    : 2204    2    2    50    30.0 %   2303   20.0 %
   9 Fidelity Elite Avantgarde V9     : 2150    2    2    50    24.0 %   2303   12.0 %
  10 Mephisto Almeria 32 Bit          : 2110    2    2    50    20.0 %   2303   24.0 %

As you can see, the Milano with 100MHz is more than 300 Elo stronger, than the original with 5MHz:
https://www.schach-computer.info/wiki/i ... -Elo-Liste

Thread in the german forum about this test here:
https://www.schachcomputer.info/forum/s ... ano+100MHz

[AdminX]

I own 2 of these 100MHz 6502 chips and have a 100MHz Milano and a 100 MHz Polgar - just awesome.

I played with an emulated Milano 100 Mhz vs. other emulated Computers (default speed) ("https://fhub.jimdofree.com/") in Arena, using the MessEmu by Franz Huber. 450 games. Level: around 30sec per move. The result was this:

Code: Select all

     Program                            Elo    +    -   Games   Score   Av.Op.  Draws

   1 Tasc R30 (The King 2.20)         : 2356    2    2    50    59.0 %   2303    2.0 %
   2 Tasc R30 (Gideon 2.1)            : 2320    2    2    50    51.0 %   2303   54.0 %
   3 Milano 1.02 Turbo 100 MHz        : 2303   21   21   450    57.9 %   2245   23.8 %
   4 Mephisto TM Lyon 68030           : 2297    2    2    50    67.0 %   2303   26.0 %
   5 Mephisto TM Portorose 68030      : 2273    2    2    50    14.0 %   2303   16.0 %
   6 Mephisto Montreux v1.00          : 2256    2    2    50    64.0 %   2303    4.0 %
   7 Saitek RISC 2500 v1.04           : 2239    2    2    50    50.0 %   2303   56.0 %
   8 Fidelity Elite Avantgarde V10    : 2204    2    2    50    30.0 %   2303   20.0 %
   9 Fidelity Elite Avantgarde V9     : 2150    2    2    50    24.0 %   2303   12.0 %
  10 Mephisto Almeria 32 Bit          : 2110    2    2    50    20.0 %   2303   24.0 %

As you can see, the Milano with 100MHz is more than 300 Elo stronger, than the original with 5MHz:
https://www.schach-computer.info/wiki/i ... -Elo-Liste

Thread in the german forum about this test here:
https://www.schachcomputer.info/forum/s ... ano+100MHz

That is impressive!

[pohl4711]

That is impressive!

10000 nodes/sec instead of 500 n/sec is a game-changer... In normal middlegame positions, with 30 seconds thinking-time, the Milano 100 MHz finishes the search of the 7th ply, the Milano 5 MHz finishes the 5th ply most of the times, so the Milano 100 MHz search-depth is around +2 plies deeper (a little bit more)...
And the cool thing is, that the clocks are running normal, not 20x faster, on the machine (not the PC-emulation, of course), so, you can use the Milano/Polgar without any problems here. The only difference is the 20x bigger nps...Thats, what I am calling a Turbo !!!
A Super Constellation nearly could hit the Elo 2000 level, using that monster 6502 100MHz.

[daniel71]

My Mephisto Mondial still works perfect that's why I love Mephisto products, my only regret I couldn't afford the better wooden autosensory units made at that time. Too bad they don't reproduce the Mephisto with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.

[Jouni]

Really impressive product! I remember to change crystal up to 50% faster without problems. But clock ran also 50% faster.