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From: patrick@mcc-db2.UUCP (Patrick McGehearty)
Newsgroups: net.games.chess
Subject: Re: Re: computer chess
Message-ID: <364@mcc-db2.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 13:28:45 EST
Article-I.D.: mcc-db2.364
Posted: Fri Dec 20 13:28:45 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 05:35:19 EST
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> Anyone know any details of Hans system?
> 
> Skeptically - Dave Trissel  {ihnp4,seismo}!ut-sally!im4u!oakhill!davet

HiTech is discussed in the Winter 1985 issue of Carnegie-Mellon Magazine
(an alumni mag).  The following quotes are out of context...
ability to consider 175,000 positions per second
Carl Ebeling has designed a "smart" VLSI "move generator" that
accounts for much of the performance of HiTech.
64 custom chips are used in HiTech/ one per square
Each chip "identifies all moves that can bring any piece to
its square and evaluates them based on the computer's knowledge
of fundamentals of chess strategy"
...a sophisticated analysis program developed by Berliner decides
how things stand in any board position before starting a search...
In summary, HiTech is a smart, brute force program

Having know Hans personally, I would expect him not to exaggerate
with respect to chess performance.  After all, the program has
beat two masters and drawn to a third.  Best performance ever
by a machine against human players.