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Updates: Number of Legal 18x18 Go Positions Computed; Latest XKCD Go Comic

Number of Legal 18x18 Go Positions Computed; 19x19 On The Horizon: “It took about 50,000 CPU hours and 4PB of disk IO, but now we know the exact number of legal 18x18 Go positions,” johntromp wrote in a recent post on slashdot. “Seeking computing power for the ultimate 19x19 count,” the post continues. "Thanks to the Chinese Remainder Theorem, the work of computing L(19,19) can be split up into 9 jobs that each compute 64 bits of the 566-bit result. Allowing for some redundancy, we need from 10 to 13 servers, each with at least 8 cores, 512GB RAM, and ample disk space (10-15TB), running for about 5-9 months." Thanks to Steve Colburn for passing this along.

Latest XKCD Go Comic: In a possibly related development, here's the latest go comic from xkcd, "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language."