Belle (chess machine)
Encyclopedia
Belle was the name of a chess computer
and its associated software, developed by Joe Condon and Ken Thompson at Bell Labs
in the 1970s and 1980s. Belle was the first computer built for the sole purpose of chess playing. The strongest computer chess system of its time, Belle achieved a USCF
rating
of 2250, and officially became the first master-level machine in 1983. It won the ACM
North American Computer Chess Championship
s of 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1986. It also won the 1980 World Computer Chess Championship
.
In its final incarnation, Belle was composed of a PDP-11
/23 with a LSI-11 processor, and many custom boards. There were three custom boards for move generation, four custom boards for position evaluation, and one board with custom microcode which controlled the whole thing. The computer also had one megabyte of commercial memory which was used for transposition tables. At the end of its career, Belle was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The overall architecture of Belle was used for the initial designs of ChipTest
, the progenitor of IBM Deep Blue.
In 1982, Belle was confiscated by the US State Department at Kennedy Airport when heading to the USSR to compete in a computer chess tournament; its shipping was considered to be an illegal transfer of advanced technology to a foreign country. It took over a month and a $600 fine to get Belle out of customs. Thompson learned that the reason for confiscation was the attached HP 2640
terminal which had internal VLSI memory and a microprocessor.
Computer chess
Computer chess is computer architecture encompassing hardware and software capable of playing chess autonomously without human guidance. Computer chess acts as solo entertainment , as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human...
and its associated software, developed by Joe Condon and Ken Thompson at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
in the 1970s and 1980s. Belle was the first computer built for the sole purpose of chess playing. The strongest computer chess system of its time, Belle achieved a USCF
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
rating
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
of 2250, and officially became the first master-level machine in 1983. It won the ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
North American Computer Chess Championship
North American Computer Chess Championship
The North American Computer Chess Championship was a computer chess championship held from 1970 to 1994. It was organised by the Association for Computing Machinery and by Dr. Monty Newborn, Professor of Computer Science at McGill University. It was one of the first computer chess tournaments. The...
s of 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1986. It also won the 1980 World Computer Chess Championship
World Computer Chess Championship
World Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...
.
In its final incarnation, Belle was composed of a PDP-11
PDP-11
The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a succession of products in the PDP series. The PDP-11 replaced the PDP-8 in many real-time applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years...
/23 with a LSI-11 processor, and many custom boards. There were three custom boards for move generation, four custom boards for position evaluation, and one board with custom microcode which controlled the whole thing. The computer also had one megabyte of commercial memory which was used for transposition tables. At the end of its career, Belle was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The overall architecture of Belle was used for the initial designs of ChipTest
ChipTest
ChipTest was a 1985 chess playing computer built by Feng-hsiung Hsu, Thomas Anantharaman and Murray Campbell at Carnegie Mellon University. It is the predecessor of Deep Thought which in turn evolved into Deep Blue....
, the progenitor of IBM Deep Blue.
In 1982, Belle was confiscated by the US State Department at Kennedy Airport when heading to the USSR to compete in a computer chess tournament; its shipping was considered to be an illegal transfer of advanced technology to a foreign country. It took over a month and a $600 fine to get Belle out of customs. Thompson learned that the reason for confiscation was the attached HP 2640
HP 2640
The HP 2640A and other HP 264X models were block-mode "smart" and intelligent ASCII standard serial terminals produced by Hewlett Packard using the Intel 8008 and 8080 microprocessors.-History:...
terminal which had internal VLSI memory and a microprocessor.