TCEC S24 hardware ?

[Dariusz]

What hardware is used for chess engine games ?
(I did not find an answer to this question; apologies if I missed it.)

[jkominek]

It's the same as Season 23 as far as I am aware.

The one hardware platform that is a mystery to me is machine "D". The system they used for the superfinal of Seasdon 8 was a (small) upgrade over the machine used during the preliminary rounds. But it is not listed on the Chessdom web pages. Chatwing messages containing the answer have long vanished.

This list is for the CPU machines only. Since Season 23 the GPU and CPU engines run on the same machine. Prior to that they were different computers.

Code: Select all

Table 1. TCEC CPU Engline Hardware

Season     FinishDate  HW
--------   ----------  --
Season 24  tbd         G  
Season 23  2022-11-17  G  
Season 22  2022-04-23  G  
Season 21  2021-08-07  F  
Season 20  2021-02-01  F  
Season 19  2020-10-15  F  
Season 18  2020-06-22  F  
Season 17  2020-04-21  F  
Season 16  2019-10-13  E  
Season 15  2019-05-10  E  
Season 14  2019-02-23  E  
Season 13  2018-11-07  E  
Season 12  2018-07-05  E  
Season 11  2018-04-15  E  
Season 10  2017-12-07  E  
Season 9   2016-12-05  E  
Season 8   2015-11-30  D  
           2015-10-07  C  
Season 7   2014-12-27  B  
Season 6   2014-05-20  B  
Season 5   2013-12-01  B  
Season 4   2013-05-09  B  
Season 3   2011-05-18  A  
Season 2   2011-04-21  A  
Season 1   2011-02-06  A  

Machine G: 52 cores 104 threads - 2x Intel Xeon 6230R @ 2.1 GHz (Cascade Lake), 256 GB to engines, 14TB SDD for 7-man syzygy wdl, 30TB for 7-man syzygy dtz
Machine F: 88 cores 176 threads - 4x Intel Xeon E5-4669v4 @ 2.2 GHz (Broadwell 14nm), 128 GB to engines, 1TB RAM for 6-man syzygy, 68 GB/s, Q2 2016, 
Machine E: 44 cores  88 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2699v4 @ 2.2 GHz (Broadwell 14nm), 64 GB DDR4-2400, 64 GB RAM, 9.6 GT/s, Q1 2016, Supermicro X10DRL-i
Machine D: 24 cores  48 threads - 2x Intel Xeon ? (24 cores suspected because in pgn logs 24 threads are used by engines)
Machine C: 20 cores  40 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2650v3 @ 2.3 GHz (Haswell), 128 GB RAM, Supermicro X10DRL-i
Machine B: 16 cores  32 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2689 @ 2.6 GHz (Sandy Bridge), 64 GB RAM, Asus Z9PE-D8 WS
Machine A:  6 cores  12 threads - 1x Intel Core i7 980x @ 3.3 GHz, max 24 GB RAM

Table 2. 
TCEC Superfinal Time Controls
=============================
Season 24: ?
Seasons 22-23: 7200+12
Seasons 19-21: 7200+10
Season 18:     5400+10
Season 17:     5400+5
Seasons 15-16: 7200+10
Seasons 10-14: 7200+15
Season 9:      10800+15
Season 8:      10800+30
Seasons 5-7:   7200+30
Season 4:      9000+60
Seasons 2-3:   9000+30
Season 1:      40/6000,20/3000,1200+10

[Jouni]

What was the reason for slow 2x Intel Xeon 6230R @ 2.1 GHz (Cascade Lake)? Isn't Threadripper 64/128 about 50% faster and cheaper?

[Dariusz]

It's the same as Season 23 as far as I am aware.

The one hardware platform that is a mystery to me is machine "D". The system they used for the superfinal of Seasdon 8 was a (small) upgrade over the machine used during the preliminary rounds. But it is not listed on the Chessdom web pages. Chatwing messages containing the answer have long vanished.

This list is for the CPU machines only. Since Season 23 the GPU and CPU engines run on the same machine. Prior to that they were different computers.

Code: Select all

Table 1. TCEC CPU Engline Hardware

Season     FinishDate  HW
--------   ----------  --
Season 24  tbd         G  
Season 23  2022-11-17  G  
Season 22  2022-04-23  G  
Season 21  2021-08-07  F  
Season 20  2021-02-01  F  
Season 19  2020-10-15  F  
Season 18  2020-06-22  F  
Season 17  2020-04-21  F  
Season 16  2019-10-13  E  
Season 15  2019-05-10  E  
Season 14  2019-02-23  E  
Season 13  2018-11-07  E  
Season 12  2018-07-05  E  
Season 11  2018-04-15  E  
Season 10  2017-12-07  E  
Season 9   2016-12-05  E  
Season 8   2015-11-30  D  
           2015-10-07  C  
Season 7   2014-12-27  B  
Season 6   2014-05-20  B  
Season 5   2013-12-01  B  
Season 4   2013-05-09  B  
Season 3   2011-05-18  A  
Season 2   2011-04-21  A  
Season 1   2011-02-06  A  

Machine G: 52 cores 104 threads - 2x Intel Xeon 6230R @ 2.1 GHz (Cascade Lake), 256 GB to engines, 14TB SDD for 7-man syzygy wdl, 30TB for 7-man syzygy dtz
Machine F: 88 cores 176 threads - 4x Intel Xeon E5-4669v4 @ 2.2 GHz (Broadwell 14nm), 128 GB to engines, 1TB RAM for 6-man syzygy, 68 GB/s, Q2 2016, 
Machine E: 44 cores  88 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2699v4 @ 2.2 GHz (Broadwell 14nm), 64 GB DDR4-2400, 64 GB RAM, 9.6 GT/s, Q1 2016, Supermicro X10DRL-i
Machine D: 24 cores  48 threads - 2x Intel Xeon ? (24 cores suspected because in pgn logs 24 threads are used by engines)
Machine C: 20 cores  40 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2650v3 @ 2.3 GHz (Haswell), 128 GB RAM, Supermicro X10DRL-i
Machine B: 16 cores  32 threads - 2x Intel Xeon E5-2689 @ 2.6 GHz (Sandy Bridge), 64 GB RAM, Asus Z9PE-D8 WS
Machine A:  6 cores  12 threads - 1x Intel Core i7 980x @ 3.3 GHz, max 24 GB RAM

Table 2. 
TCEC Superfinal Time Controls
=============================
Season 24: ?
Seasons 22-23: 7200+12
Seasons 19-21: 7200+10
Season 18:     5400+10
Season 17:     5400+5
Seasons 15-16: 7200+10
Seasons 10-14: 7200+15
Season 9:      10800+15
Season 8:      10800+30
Seasons 5-7:   7200+30
Season 4:      9000+60
Seasons 2-3:   9000+30
Season 1:      40/6000,20/3000,1200+10

Thank you very much for this data

[jkominek]

What was the reason for slow 2x Intel Xeon 6230R @ 2.1 GHz (Cascade Lake)? Isn't Threadripper 64/128 about 50% faster and cheaper?

I'm not an insider. Just a spectator like nearly everyone else.

But, the budget of chessdom.com is considerably smaller than that of chess.com, I have to believe. Recent TCEC hardware has essential been a loan from the intriguingly well-heeled Stockfish patron and chessdbcn creator noobpwnftw. I'm under the impression that the current TCEC machine is selected from his arsenal, augmented with enough SSD space to store 7-man syzygy tablesbases.

For publicly visible long time control matches you really want the computer to be an enterprise-grade server. Reliability is key. Consumer-grade equipment (as it is called) won't cut it. So while the AMD Zen4 and Zen5 architectures are downright impressive for running chess software, the top-of-the-line servers are still mighty expensive. Are you going to pay for it? Much as I'd like to see an upgrade to dual 96-core EPYC, shelling out the required money is too much for my wallet. I doubt the little bit that trickles in from ad placements adds much to the tip jar.

The economics for the TCEC and CCCC competitions are probably not money earners. I'm pretty happy that they happen at all.

[marsell]

A tournament that takes place continuously is not really exciting.
Once a year would be enough, like any big event. It would probably get a lot more attention. Playing it with 104 or 124 threads doesn't change that.
Under Martin Thoresen it was an event. Now it's just a routine for me to open the Tcec page once a day and discuss the results. It's nothing special,but rather boring. The performance of the hardware used doesn't change that.
Back to the roots, please.

[Jouni]

Really surprising situation in League 1:

1
Koivisto 9.2
16
2
Berserk 20230227
13.5
3
Revenge 20230209
13.5
4
ScorpioNN 3.0.15.10
13
5
Igel 3.5-dev
13
6
RubiChess 20230301
12

[Jouni]

Berserk at position 5. This dev version has a regression?! 4 best goes to Premier Division only.

[RubiChess]

Berserk at position 5. This dev version has a regression?! 4 best goes to Premier Division only.

1. Everything below some thousand games is small sample size
2. Nobody tests at 104 threads so nobody knows if Berserk has what you call "regression".
3. Only two engines promote to DivP.

[Jouni]

Aha only 2 promotes. So Berserk chances are about 0% now.