just came up with a great idea for a new version of Stratego -- this would only be played on a computer. The idea arose from thinking about the Spy piece and wondering what would be like if it could actually spy so the first step would be to change the name of the current Spy piece to the Assassin to eliminate confusion.
Here's how spying would work. Whenever one of your pieces moves into a position adjacent to one of the pieces of the enemy---doesn't matter if it's to the right left in front of or in back of -- both you and the enemy would have the opportunity to subvert the other person's piece and turn it into a spy.
However, you would only have the opportunity to do this twice per game. If you make the choice to do this, the enemy piece will then secretly become your spy. However, the enemy will not know about this. Once the piece is your spy, it means that every time that piece becomes adjacent to another of your opponent's pieces, you get to find out the identity of that other opponent's piece. In addition, you get to find out the identity of each piece directly adjacent to the piece you are spying on.
That means in any one move, you can find out about a maximum of four different enemy pieces. In addition, at any point in the game, you could decide to "take over" active control of this piece. At this point, the piece would lose its spy powers and revert to its ordinary powers depending on its rank. It would be just like one of your regular pieces. The enemy would find out when one of his pieces suddenly moved without him moving it, and then changed color.
One of the keys is, if you move next to an enemy piece, you have three seconds to "subvert it" into a spy. After those three seconds, the enemy can, if he chooses, subvert your piece into a spy. However, if you subvert an enemy piece into a spy and he subsequently tries to subvert your same piece into a spy---within the same move---then not only will his piece become your spy, but your piece will become a double agent. What this means is, that you will gain control of the flow of information going to the enemy about what your pieces supposedly are. You can send him any type of misinformation you want to.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Software Released for Programming the Cell (PS3)
I can't figure out why this press release doesn't mention the PS3. I suppose game programmers may need different types of software suites to help them program that Cell Processor than other types of programmers.
http://www.mc.com/mediacenter/pressrelease.aspx?id=2062
"MultiCore Plus SDK empowers users with programming ease and maximizes application performance for Cell BE processor-based solutions from Mercury and IBM
"The Mercury MultiCore Plus TM SDK 1.0 (Software Development Kit) provides a complete, intuitive programming environment for products based on the Cell BE and other multicore processors. Combining a powerful set of software tools and libraries into a seamless package, the MultiCore Plus SDK enables users to maximize resources and application performance by taking full advantage of the multicore processor's computation model. The Beta version of this software has been in use at customers across industries since late 2005 including aerospace & defense, seismic, semiconductor, life sciences, digital media, and national labs."
Monday, November 12, 2007
Intel Using New Material for Chips---In Addition to Silicon Dioxide
As reported on page B7 of the Wall Street Journal today, a historic shift is occurring as Intel starts utilizing a key new substance in its IC chips, added to the ubiquitous silicon dioxide. The material being utilized by Intel in their new chip called the Core 2 Extreme QX9650 is called hafnium dioxide.
"Hafnium [all general info on hafnium and hafnium dioxide to follow quoted from Wikepedia] is a chemical element that has the symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray tetravalent transition metal, hafnium resembles zirconium chemically and it is found in zirconium minerals.
from http://www.genus.com/glossary.html:
High k dielectric: An insulator which will not conduct electricity but which, when sandwiched between metal plates, will easily allow these plates to talk to each other via electric fields (this is called a capacitor structure). These can be used as memories, and one structure that is being considered for very high density DRAMs (dynamic random access memories) is a layer of barium strontium titanate (BST -- a high k dielectric) between platinum electrodes. While high k dielectrics are good for capacitors, the opposite is true of the insulators used to separate metal lines, for which low k dielectrics are desirable (see low k dielectric).
These "new chips" are now on the market. Incredibly cool stuff and unfortunately I am buried with work and cannot pursue this. Here is some paraphrased material from the Chemistry World web site.
As they have been making the gates of transistors and IC chips smaller and smaller, they have now gotten down to gates that are only a few atoms wide. So, the electrons are utilizing quantum tunneling to go right through the gate, causing leakage of current and messing up the circuit. (Digital means everything is on or off---you don't want and off transistor leaking current. Quantum tunneling is a super cool phenomenon whereby electrons on one side of an impenetrable barrier sometimes appear on the other side of the barrier---without ever having actually passed through it---All in the parentheses are my own, possibly incorrect contributions.)
It has been known for a while that adding hafnium dioxide to the gate can rectify this problem. Unfortunately, silicon dioxide must be added on top of the HfO2, in this requires temperatures so high that the HfO2 is destroyed. So essentially, Intel and IBM came up with the "secret sauce" that solves this problem. Now that the chips are on the market, the techies can cut them open and figure out what this material is.
"Hafnium [all general info on hafnium and hafnium dioxide to follow quoted from Wikepedia] is a chemical element that has the symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray tetravalent transition metal, hafnium resembles zirconium chemically and it is found in zirconium minerals.
"Hafnium dioxide is quite inert. It reacts with strong acids such as concentrated sulfuric acid and with strong bases. It dissolves slowly in hydrofluoric acid to give fluorohafnate anions. At elevated temperatures, it reacts with chlorine in the presence of graphite or carbon tetrachloride to give hafnium tetrachloride. It is used in optical coatings, and as a high-k dielectric in DRAM capacitors.
"The term high-k dielectric refers to a material with a high dielectric constant (k) (as compared to silicon dioxide) used in semiconductor manufacturing processes which replaces the silicon dioxide gate dielectric. The implementation of high-k gate dielectrics is one of several strategies developed to allow further miniaturization of microelectronic components, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's Law." [end Wikepedia]from http://www.genus.com/glossary.html:
High k dielectric: An insulator which will not conduct electricity but which, when sandwiched between metal plates, will easily allow these plates to talk to each other via electric fields (this is called a capacitor structure). These can be used as memories, and one structure that is being considered for very high density DRAMs (dynamic random access memories) is a layer of barium strontium titanate (BST -- a high k dielectric) between platinum electrodes. While high k dielectrics are good for capacitors, the opposite is true of the insulators used to separate metal lines, for which low k dielectrics are desirable (see low k dielectric).
Next Material from:"Hafnium oxide helps make chips smaller and faster," Chemistry World, March 2007, http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2007/March/HafniumOxideHelpsMakeChipsSmallerFaster.asp
"'Researchers have learnt to deposit very thin films of hafnium oxide and mix it with silica or silicon nitride at the molecular scale to tailor their insulating and charge storage properties,' explained Paul McIntyre from the Stanford University Engineering and Science Institute, California...
"But depositing conducting silicon gate materials on top of the insulating hafnium oxide is problematic. Though hafnium oxide is tough stuff, the high temperatures needed to lay down the silicon gate damage the insulator's surface, drastically reducing the transistor's clock speed compared to typical silicon gate/silica insulator devices. Enter Intel and IBM's secret new gate materials, which can be stuck to the dielectric at less extreme conditions.
'Research groups worldwide have demonstrated hafnium oxide-containing transistors with a variety of gate metal materials,' said McIntyre. 'These include titanium and hafnium nitrides, tungsten, ruthenium and ruthenium oxide and certain metal silicides,' he said. 'But mass producing reliable chips is a whole different ball game from single-device manufacture in the lab,' McIntyre told Chemistry World. 'Until we can buy the new chips and cut them open, we can't really know what gate metals Intel have chosen'...
"According to Gordon Moore, 'the implementation of high k and metal materials marks the biggest change in transistor technology since the introduction of polysilicon gate MOS transistors in the late 1960s.'"
These "new chips" are now on the market. Incredibly cool stuff and unfortunately I am buried with work and cannot pursue this. Here is some paraphrased material from the Chemistry World web site.
As they have been making the gates of transistors and IC chips smaller and smaller, they have now gotten down to gates that are only a few atoms wide. So, the electrons are utilizing quantum tunneling to go right through the gate, causing leakage of current and messing up the circuit. (Digital means everything is on or off---you don't want and off transistor leaking current. Quantum tunneling is a super cool phenomenon whereby electrons on one side of an impenetrable barrier sometimes appear on the other side of the barrier---without ever having actually passed through it---All in the parentheses are my own, possibly incorrect contributions.)
It has been known for a while that adding hafnium dioxide to the gate can rectify this problem. Unfortunately, silicon dioxide must be added on top of the HfO2, in this requires temperatures so high that the HfO2 is destroyed. So essentially, Intel and IBM came up with the "secret sauce" that solves this problem. Now that the chips are on the market, the techies can cut them open and figure out what this material is.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Source of Optimistic Thoughts Located in Brain
Wall Street Journal, November 9, page B1
"'These rosy thoughts triggered one key brain region most strongly. Called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, this neural nub is active whenever we think of hopes and aspirations. "This region of the cortex may actually be taking information and transforming it in a way that creates this optimism bias," Dr. Phelps said."'
"'These rosy thoughts triggered one key brain region most strongly. Called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, this neural nub is active whenever we think of hopes and aspirations. "This region of the cortex may actually be taking information and transforming it in a way that creates this optimism bias," Dr. Phelps said."'
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Pet Peeve: Where is the Map?
On Monday, October 22, 2007, Wall Street Journal had a special advertising page, "Investing in Japan" on page A 16. The subtitle was, "Country Offers Opportunities Beyond its Big Cities."
Actually, the page was pretty interesting, talking about the foreign direct investment (FDI) into Japan as a whole and then going into all of the less populated regions that they are trying to get money into. Since the whole premiseof the page was that people are not aware of these places, I am amazed that this advertising page was not accompanied by a map.
This lack is rather common, especially in news articles about obscure countries.
Actually, the page was pretty interesting, talking about the foreign direct investment (FDI) into Japan as a whole and then going into all of the less populated regions that they are trying to get money into. Since the whole premiseof the page was that people are not aware of these places, I am amazed that this advertising page was not accompanied by a map.
This lack is rather common, especially in news articles about obscure countries.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Sam Zell -- Genius or Just Lucky?
October 20 -- 21 2007 article in WSJ page A11 talks about House Sam Zell, the real estate virtuoso at Master investor is supposedly some kind of genius. He built up his company, Equity Office Properties, a real estate investment trust out over decades and sold it to Blackstone for $39 billion in February of 2007. By August, the value of these properties had no doubt plummeted due to the real estate crash.
As a result, and for other reasons I suppose, Zell is considered some kind of genius. But when asked, he says that he did not know that the market was sitting atop. Rather, he says that he felt Blackstone offered him more money for the company than it was worth so he took it. If he's telling the truth, then he avoided disaster in the real estate market by blind luck. The story doesn't look too impressive to me: typical relic, that someone who gets lucky is called a genius.
That was not what happened, in my opinion, when Marty Zweig called the market bottom on Wall Street week before it happened, I believe this was in the early 1980s. He made the call about six months before the actual market bottom and stuck with it the whole time when everyone else in the country felt that stocks were equivalent to the Black plague. He was fully invested through that period. I saw him accumulate gray hairs during that six-month period. That was a combination of genius and guts, something real, not just luck.
As a result, and for other reasons I suppose, Zell is considered some kind of genius. But when asked, he says that he did not know that the market was sitting atop. Rather, he says that he felt Blackstone offered him more money for the company than it was worth so he took it. If he's telling the truth, then he avoided disaster in the real estate market by blind luck. The story doesn't look too impressive to me: typical relic, that someone who gets lucky is called a genius.
That was not what happened, in my opinion, when Marty Zweig called the market bottom on Wall Street week before it happened, I believe this was in the early 1980s. He made the call about six months before the actual market bottom and stuck with it the whole time when everyone else in the country felt that stocks were equivalent to the Black plague. He was fully invested through that period. I saw him accumulate gray hairs during that six-month period. That was a combination of genius and guts, something real, not just luck.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Programming the PS3's Cell Processor
I found that excellent article I mentioned in an earlier post about how to program the new Cell processor in the PS3.
Dr. Dobbs Portal, Programming the Cell Processor
"In this article, we present strategies we've used to make a Breadth-First Search on graphs as fast as possible on the Cell, reaching a performance that's 22 times higher than Intel's Woodcrest, comparable to a 256-processor BlueGene/L supercomputer—and all this with just with a single Cell processor! Some techniques (loop unrolling, function inlining, SIMDization) are familiar; others (bulk synchronous parallelization, DMA traffic scheduling, overlapping of computation and transfers) are less so."
Here's another article I just found that is less intensely technical than the above, but also very good.
Cell Architecture Explained Version 2
"It is when the SPEs are working on compute heavy streaming applications that the Cell will be working hardest. It's in these applications that the Cell may get close to it's theoretical maximum performance and perform an order of magnitude more calculations per second than any desktop processor currently available.
On the other hand if the stream uses large amounts of bandwidth and the data blocks can fit into the local stores the performance difference might actually be bigger. Even if conventional CPUs are capable of processing, the data at the same rate the transfers between the CPUs will be held up while they wait for chip to chip transfers. The Cell’s internal interconnect system allows transfers running into hundreds of Gigabytes per second, chip to chip interconnects allows transfers in the low 10’s of Gigabytes per second.
While conventional processors have vector units on board (SSE or VMX / AltiVec) they are not dedicated vector processors. The vector processing capability is an add-on to the existing instruction sets and has to share the CPUs resources. The SPEs are dedicated high speed vector processors and with their own memory don't need to share anything other than the memory (and not even this much if the data can fit in the local stores). Add to this the fact there are 8 of them and you can see why their potential computational capacity is so large."
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