The ChessMachine

The ChessMachine from TASC B.V. is a chess computer expansion-cartridge for the Commodore Amiga. The device, in the form of a plastic box, has the size of a floppy disk drive. It is powered by its own PSU and connected to the Amiga via the parallel interface. The playing strength of the chess program is therefore independent of the computing power of the Amiga. The processor of the ChessMachine is the ARM 2 32-bit RISC processor clocked at 16 MHz, which also serves in the Archimedes and has a computing power of 12 MIPS. This corresponds to the performance of a 68030 CPU clocked at 50 MHz. The circuit board is equipped with 1 MB RAM. With a playing ability (with Gideon®) of about ELO 2220, it is the strongest chess program for the Amiga. The ChessMachine does not use its own dedicated electronic chess board and relies on a graphical chess board interface from the Amiga.