The first commercial multi-processor chess computer

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Mike Watters
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The first commercial multi-processor chess computer

Post by Mike Watters »

Hi All

I have written a webpage about the v5 Fidelity Elite Avant Garde which was the first chess computer sold to the public with double processors. There is also some information about all the Avant Garde versions. Some of the information on the web is contradictory, as usual. One of the things I haven't been able to find out is why v1 was not produced despite the initial announcement and inclusion in tables showing the version specifications.

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/fid ... __v_5.html

All the best
Mike
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Tibono2
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Post by Tibono2 »

Thanks a lot!
The tech notes regarding multi-processing are a must read, nice sharing & much appreciated!
KR, Tibono
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Hi Mike

Nice article 👍

Pity you didn't post this a couple of days ago as I could have asked Ron Nelson whom I was in contact with.

Regards
Bryan
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Yarc
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Post by Yarc »

Beautiful machine!

Regards Ray
"I'm not so sure you're on the right track now."..."Oh! I see what you mean."
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hap
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Post by hap »

Nice writeup!

It's not commonly known, that Novag Savant actually has 2 processors. AFAIK it is the 1st multi-processor chess computer. It has a 6MHz Z80 and a 4MHz Fairchild 3870. The 3870 is responsible for handling the buttons, touchscreen, LCD, and sound. The chess calculations are done on the Z80.

If I had to make a rough guess, the speed gained from moving the I/O(user interface program) to another CPU was not much, maybe around 5%.
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dedicate computers
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EAG - two processor

Post by dedicate computers »

Hi All

I have written a webpage about the v5 Fidelity Elite Avant Garde which was the first chess computer sold to the public with double processors. There is also some information about all the Avant Garde versions. Some of the information on the web is contradictory, as usual. One of the things I haven't been able to find out is why v1 was not produced despite the initial announcement and inclusion in tables showing the version specifications.

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/fid ... __v_5.html

All the best
Mike
Hello,

Excellent story for you. But isn't it legend that Karpov used EAG as training against kasparov?
Regards
Oswald
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Mike Watters
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Re: EAG - two processor

Post by Mike Watters »

dedicate computers wrote: Hello,
Excellent story for you. But isn't it legend that Karpov used EAG as training against kasparov?
Regards
Oswald
Hi Oswald

Use of the first Avant Garde v10 by Karpov's team is reported by Frederic Friedel at some length in Computer Schach und Spiele 1990 No. 6 Pages 19-20. Also mentioned in Selective Search 31 Page 2.

So it happened.

All the best
Mike
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