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Randomized Parallel Proof-Number Search

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Advances in Computer Games (ACG 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 6048))

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Abstract

Proof-Number Search (PNS) is a powerful method for solving games and game positions. Over the years, the research on PNS has steadily produced new insights and techniques. With multi-core processors becoming established in the recent past, the question of parallelizing PNS has gained new urgency. This article presents a new technique called Randomized Parallel Proof-Number Search (RPPNS) for parallelizing PNS on multi-core systems with shared memory. The parallelization is based on randomizing the move selection of multiple threads, which operate on the same search tree. RPPNS is tested on a set of complex Lines-of-Action endgame positions. Experiments show that RPPNS scales well. Four directions for future research are given.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Knowledge Engineering, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Maastricht University,  

    Jahn-Takeshi Saito & Mark H. M. Winands

  2. Tilburg centre for Creative Computing (TiCC), Faculty of Humanities, Tilburg University,  

    H. Jaap van den Herik

Authors
  1. Jahn-Takeshi Saito
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  2. Mark H. M. Winands
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  3. H. Jaap van den Herik
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Games and AI Group, MICC, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    H. Jaap van den Herik

  2. Institute for Knowledge and Agent Technology, Universiteit Maastricht,  

    Pieter Spronck

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Saito, JT., Winands, M.H.M., van den Herik, H.J. (2010). Randomized Parallel Proof-Number Search. In: van den Herik, H.J., Spronck, P. (eds) Advances in Computer Games. ACG 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6048. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12993-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12993-3_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12992-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12993-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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