[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] This page contains some preliminary information about the future Houdini 2.0 version.
The information is provided without any warranty - dates and features can be changed at all times.
The page will be updated as more information becomes available (current update was made on July 19, 2011).
Besides some Elo strength improvement and a number of minor bug fixes, Houdini 2.0 will focus on
features that improve the user experience, more specifically for position analysis.
Another development axis is the support for servers with high number of cores (16 and up) that will
become more readily available in the near future.
Release Date
The Houdini 2.0 release is scheduled sometime between September and December 2011.
Strength Limit feature
Houdini 2.0 will have a strength limit feature - from 0 (beginner) to 100 (full strength).
The strength is limited through a combination of techniques: limiting the number of positions searched,
purposely picking a non-optimal move, and ignoring table bases.
Everyone should now be able to beat Houdini, we're sure happy we can now :).
Improved Analysis support: Save Hash to File, Load Hash from File, Never Clear Hash
The complete hash table can be saved to a disk file and reloaded later for continuing the analysis.
Houdini 2.0 will make better use of the data in the hash table to restart instantly
the analysis at the point where it was previously interrupted.
The goal is to be able to interrupt the analysis anytime and save the hash table in a disk file.
At a later date you can reload the hash table file in memory and
continue the analysis as if no interruption had happened.
A new "Never Clear Hash" option will keep the hash data in memory even when the position changes or when
starting a new game.
Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess) Support
Houdini 2.0 will support Chess960 games.
Mate Search Limit
To speed up solving deep mates, you can fix a limit on the search depth during the mate search.
NUMA-aware version for high-end, multi-socket servers
For advanced servers with many cores on multiple sockets (usually with so-called NUMA architecture),
a special "NUMA-aware" Houdini version will be available. It will significantly improve the scaling of Houdini
when more than 8 cores are available, and therefore prepare for the next generation of CPUs with 16 to 32 cores.
How much Elo will Houdini 2.0 be stronger?
The most frequently asked question about Houdini 2.0, and to which we currently will not reply,
as it's not been decided yet which evaluation and search improvements will make it into the final release.
You'll have to wait and see :).
In the meanwhile, enjoy Houdini 1.5!
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The Beta testing of NUMA-aware version shows approxametly 20% increase in speed