[gnugo-devel] Go as SPEC benchmark?

[James F. Koehler]

Hello Dr. Bump and other GnuGo developers,

    I am a Go player of low dan-level strength but am writing to you
primarily in my role as HP rep to the osgcpu subcommittee of SPEC.  As
you may know, an older version of David Fotland's Many Faces of Go was
used as the benchmark "099.go" in cpu95.  There was no Go program in
cpu2000, but there is interest in having a representative program in
cpu2004.  (Since I play Go, I am probably the most enthusiastic about
the prospect, and the subcommittee thought I should investigate.)  At
this point, though, David feels that the disadvantage of having the
source code become visible to users of the SPEC cpu suite would outweigh
the benefits of having Many Faces used in cpu2004.

    There are many benefits to having a code used as a SPEC benchmark.
Perhaps the biggest one is publicity and "mindshare".  The particular
application chosen to represent an application area gets tremendous
visibility.  In the course of benchmark development the code gets ported
to many platforms.  SPEC member companies can provide valuable help in
that area.  Another benefit is that compiler developers have great
incentive to compile that code well, and many  of the most commercially
significant compilers will reflect that within a few years.  There are
also modest financial rewards.  More details can be found at
http://www.spec.org/osg/cpu/CPU2004/search_program.html .

     I think it would be really neat to have a Go benchmark back in the
cpu2004 suite.  Perhaps the "dream version" would incorporate both the
"standard" Go gaming techniques as well as neural-net methods.  (Perhaps
GnuGo playing Neurogo??)

     I am wondering if any of you have the interest in pursuing this
possibility.  Please let me know if you do or if you have other
suggestions.

 Thanks and regards - Jim

--
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James F. Koehler (Jim)         Hewlett-Packard Company
address@hidden             (972) 497-4932
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