Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ames.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!ames!jaw From: jaw@ames.UUCP (James A. Woods) Newsgroups: net.rumor,net.chess,net.arch Subject: Ballistic transistors, the Belle II chess machine, & Seymour Cray Message-ID: <862@ames.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Mar-85 23:08:58 EST Article-I.D.: ames.862 Posted: Sat Mar 9 23:08:58 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 08:13:24 EST Distribution: net Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA Lines: 42 Xref: linus net.rumor:451 net.chess:633 net.arch:749 # Snuff epigrams. The first major application of ballistic transistor technology is the Belle II project at Murray Hill. Since K. Thompson discovered that each speed doubling of the standard alpha-beta chess machine adds 70-100 rating points, Bobby Fisher, last seen at 2800+, has been hired on retainer to check out the playing strength of the new VLSI machine. The claim for the $100,000 Friedkin prize is not far off, making the recent Karpov-Kasparov battle pale in comparison. Word has it that the high-level evaluation function has been converted in the last few months to use the new Karmarkar linear programming algorithm. Of course, the ballistic gate speeds (100 femtosecond range) combine with a sub-picosecond cycle time and the speed of light to require a single-chip implementation. Where this design dedicates much RAM to transposition table lookup, another research group is implementing a general purpose CPU, the speed of which (no messy parallelism for the first go) has obvious consequences for the future national GNP. (The Japanese have their own HEMT [High Electron Mobility Transistor] program.) In fact, Seymour Cray, long disassociated from Cray Research (viz. recent Fortune magazine piece) flew in several weeks ago to aid in this effort. Heretofore, he was slaving away at a "slow" gallium arsenide version of a breadbox-sized Cray 3. The importance of these events cannot be overstressed in the wake of a failed attempt by the DOD to impose national security restrictions. Comments about "the book being thrown out" which were originally stifled by Nobel winner and lab chief Arno Penzias have leaked out to not only the technical community but to the general press. However, what is too late for executive level intervention is not too late to affect the price of AT&T's stock. Curiously, it has remained stable because Wall Street analysts see product development as too "blue sky". -- James A. Woods {research,ihnp4,hplabs}!ames!jaw (or, jaw@riacs) P.S. Little known anecdotes about Seymour Cray Dept.: not only does he build a new type of sailboat every year before setting it afire (!!) on Lake Michigan, but he is the constructor of the world's largest boomerang (300 lbs. plus), the problem here being that there is no one strong enough to test out its aerodynamics!