Microcomputers and Chess

Abstract

Researchers who first described how computers might be programmed to play chess were talking about machines costing millions of dollars. These machines occupied entire laboratories, ran on vacuum tubes or mechanical relays, required large amounts of electricity, generated vast amounts of heat, and failed at intervals measured in minutes or hours. They executed approximately 10,000 instructions per second, compared with 10,000,000 or more on some big fast machines currently available. They had to be programmed in machine language, a language that must have driven a certain number of programmers in the 1950’s into a permanent state of insanity. Memory space was measured in bits rather than in kilowords as it is now, thereby placing severe restrictions on the size of programs. Finding mistakes in programs was a tremendous task. Programmers complained that their programs failed because of hardware problems while the technicians called in to find the mysterious bugs countered that the problems were with the programs. The two were always seen working together and blaming each other for their own woes.