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Current CT800 firmware version: V1.44

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Change history:

V1.44:
- Limited mainboard LED flashing to three flashes after reset.
- Reduced key repeat timeout from 100 ms to 50 ms.
- Improved mate search mode.
- Improved general performance.
- Improved pawn hash collision handling.
- Fine-tuned pruning and eval.
- Removed null move threat move.
- More late move reductions.

Book tool:
- Fixed legality checks (no engine impact).

UCI versions:
- Improved FEN parser for incomplete FENs.
- CPU throttling has an additional activation checkbox.

Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r23b to r23c.

******************************************************************************

V1.43:
- Added late move pruning near the main search leaves.

- Simplified quiescence search.

- Quiescence delta pruning cuts off remaining moves if the current one has
  no hope of improving alpha.

- The en passant square is cleared before a null move search and restored
  afterwards.

- Null move search is skipped if the null depth is zero and the static node
  evaluation below beta.

- Always reward the right to move, not only in the opening.

- Added hash and PV move priorisation in early move generation.

- Improved bishop corner capture with enemy pawn.

- Enabled multi-page PV display in "pretty print" format.

- Changed the dialogue display order from OK/CL to CL/OK.

- Fixed a bug where undoing moves and then entering a new position would not
  clear the move list in the main screen.

- Fixed winning KBN:K.


UCI versions:
- More strength throtteling at the low end around 1000 Elo.

******************************************************************************

V1.42:
- Improved quiet move history handling.

- Improved null move pruning in endgames.

- Added quiescence search pruning for losing captures with pawn protection.

- Fixed a rare bug with illegal moves further down the PV.

- Fixed the mate searcher with PV being cut off.

- More opening book knowledge.

- Changed the default for the background light from "automatic" to "always on"
  for devices that only run on external power supply.

- Improved the software update instructions in the manual.


UCI versions:
- Fixed the EP square evaluation in the FEN string.

Windows:
- Updated the GCC version from 7.3.0 to 9.3.0.

Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r21d to r21e.

******************************************************************************

V1.41:
- Improved fail-high handling at root.

- Increased check deepening from two to three moves.

- Endgames with a minor piece ahead but no pawns are recognised as drawish.

- Improved mate score reliability from hashtables.

- More opening knowledge.


UCI versions:
- Using "searchmoves" does not block the internal opening book.

Windows:
- Changed time measurement to native Windows functions.

Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r21 to r21d.

- Dropped binaries for x86 CPUs. Only ARM is supported.

Raspberry Pi:
- Rolled back the GCC version from 8.3.0 (Buster) to 6.3.0 (Stretch).

******************************************************************************

V1.40:
- More aggressive pruning in search.

- Increased value of rook vs. minor and pawns if both sides have pawns.

- Improved handling of king and queen vs. king and rook.

- Simplified code for king, knight and bishop vs. king.

- Compressed the bitbase for king and pawn vs. king from 32 kB to 24 kB.

- The mate searching mode is about 30 % faster, and opponent mate search has
  been removed.

- More opening book knowledge.

- Improved protection against false opening book hits.

- Added option for aggregate castling rights in the position editor.


Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r18b to r21.

Raspberry Pi:
- Updated the GCC version from 4.6.3 (Wheezy) to 8.3.0 (Buster).

******************************************************************************

V1.34:
- Added search output during calculation, accessible via the INFO key.

- Fixed the erroneous shutdown above 5.4 V input voltage.

- Changed the final 50 move eval flattening from 0 % to 10 % target in order
  to avoid losing moves.

- Some source code cleanup.

******************************************************************************

V1.33:
- Improved move sorting for quiet moves with regard to depth killers.

- Improved move sorting resulting from internal iterative deepening.

- When a best move is retrieved from the hash table, the move generation is
  deferred until the hash move has been tried without cut-off.

- Quiescence detects stalemate against lone king.

- Improved pawn evaluation: more penalty for isolated double pawns.

- Improved king handling in endgames like KRPP:KR.

- Added draw with KNP:K for rim pawns on 7th/2nd rank with defending king in
  the edge.

- Improved KBP:KP with attacker rim pawn and wrong bishop.

- The hash tables use a compressed move format which gains 16 kB of free RAM.

- The PV lines also use the compressed move format which saves 1 kB of stack.

- Entering moves has auto correction for swapped move squares if that converts
  an illegal entry into a legal one.

- The position editor catches double entries of the same piece type.

- In time per move mode, going into the menu and back displays the same
  thinking time as before instead of rounding up.

- Refactored and improved the driver layer. The clocking allows for possible
  future addition of USB, and energy consumption in standby has been reduced.

- Starting a software update may fail when the CT800 is running idle, see the
  troubleshooting section in the manual.


Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r17b to r18b.

macOS:
- Added a build script, Clang required.

******************************************************************************

V1.32:
- When the allocated move time is over, an incomplete depth iteration is still
  used if it has useful search information.

- The maximum game length has been increased from 200 to 250 moves for the
  embedded target hardware.

- Code cleanup eliminated 700 lines in the menu system and user interface.

- More opening book knowledge.

- GCC 7.3 is able to optimise the code even better without computed goto. For
  the Android build, the associated Clang issue 35827 is not relevant any
  more.

******************************************************************************

V1.31:
- Added static stalemate detection in KQ:K to get a stable search in some
  cases of KQ:KP with bishop pawn on 7th/2nd rank.

- More opening book knowledge.

- Updated the ARM GCC version from to 6.3.1 Q2/2017 to 7.3.1 Q2/2018.


Windows:
- Updated the GCC version from 6.4.0 to 7.3.0.

Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r16b to r17b.

******************************************************************************

V1.30:
- The configuration format has changed. After the software update, the CT800
  will erase any existing configuration and saved game.

- Better king safety: avoid opening the kingside when not yet castled.

- Improved the defence against pawn and wrong bishop if the defending side
  still has one or two pawns left: the defending king must take the corner.

- The pre-search has been reduced from three plies depth to one ply. In
  complicated middlegame positions, the pre-search could take 10 seconds on
  the CT800 target hardware.

- More efficient iterative deepening with aspiration window.

- Added a dedicated reply cache for the moves at depth 2.

- Removed the threat move detection at root level.

- The time allocation keeps only a 100 ms as final safeguard buffer instead of
  1500 ms.

- Fixed a bug where manually saving and loading a game in game-in or tournament
  mode added Fischer delay and player bonus to the player's clock.

- The bitbase access for king and pawn vs. king is faster.

- Modified the evaluation noise as setting from 0 % (full strength) to 100 %
  (random mover), requiring the change of the configuration format mentioned
  above.

- More opening book knowledge.

- Some cleanup for the opening book code.


UCI versions:
- Fixed a buffer overrun that happened with "debug on" and long input lines.

- Added support for the UCI standard options that set the engine strength in
  Elo.

- Added the UCI option "Eval Noise [%]".

- Removed the UCI option "Eval Blur [cps]".

- The default move overhead for GUI delays has been reduced from a 100 ms to
  50 ms.

- Improved the time management with extremely short time controls, like one
  second per game.

- Optimised the move list parser.

- Removed checking the transferred position and move list for draw by 50 moves
  or threefold repetition or insufficient material, which the engine used to
  answer with a null move. The removal increases the compatibility with GUI
  quirks in Arena and Droidfish.

- Added the non-standard UCI command "perft x", x being the desired depth in
  plies.

Windows:
- Changed the formatted output to Windows functions or replaced them at all.
  This reduces the binary size by about 50 kB and gives a little more speed.

Android:
- Updated the NDK version from r15c to r16b.

Raspberry Pi:
- The binary is linked dynamically, reducing the size.

******************************************************************************

V1.20:
- The time management is a bit less aggressive.

- Higher priority for found null moves.

- Reduced the passed pawn extension.

- Removed the draw recognition in quiescence search with king and blocked
  pawns.

- Fixed a bug in the rook vs. bishop endgame where the correct defender edge
  was not highlighted enough over its adjacent rim squares.

- Added rule of the square for passed pawns.

- Improved the defence in rook vs. rook and pawn.

- Fixed a corner case with the 50 moves rule: the 50th move draws only if it
  does not deliver checkmate.

- Increased the amount of pseudo-legal moves that entered positions can have
  from 140 to 190.

- Undo/redo moves within the opening book range will not lose the 'b' in the
  display anymore. Not active with human vs. human or when the opening book is
  deactivated.

- Added more opening knowledge.

- The opening book compiler is case-insensitive.

- The compiler options now include also -Wextra (besides -Wall) in order to
  make better use of static code analysis at compile time. Since also -Werror
  is used, code with any warnings will not compile.


UCI versions:
- After returning a move, the engine does not execute that move internally.
  This increases the GUI compatibility when looking for alternative moves
  via the UCI feature "searchmoves".

- The half move counter in the FEN string is parsed correctly.

- Added options for controlling the contempt factor.

- Added an option to limit the speed via the node rate.

- Overhauled the I/O layer to achieve more robustness across the supported
  platforms. In particular, the engine idle state does not keep the OS from
  entering deeper energy saving modes.

- Fixed double final PV output in fixed depth search.

- Removed the "Show Short PVs" option - it is now always enabled. This reduces
  the perceived engine lag under some GUIs.


Windows:
- ASLR and NX has been enabled (enhanced security).

- Updated the GCC version from 6.3.1 to 6.4.0.


Linux:
- Still no binaries included, but added a quick compilation guide under
  binaries/Linux in the download.


Android:
- In addition to the ARM 32 bit binary, there are now also ones for ARM64, x86
  and x86-64.

- The binaries are now dynamically linked to the C standard library for better
  support of position independent code (security enhancement).

- Updated the NDK version from r15b to r15c.

- A Clang compiler problem requires a small workaround for 64 bit, see Clang
  issue 35827: https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35827 . As to keep the
  versions in line, the impacted feature has been disabled for all Android
  builds.

******************************************************************************

V1.12:
- Besides overclocking, underclocking is available as well; clocking range is
  in several steps from 10 % to 140 %. This way, users can reduce the strength
  of the CT800 while still retaining the playing style.

- Removed the "soft time per move" feature. Instead, the move time is given
  as average with about 30 % variation.

- Changing sides under time controls is now possible.

- Reduced the optional player bonus from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.

- Fixed endings with opposite coloured bishops so that the Kings' positions
  do not outweigh an additional pawn loss.

- Added draw detection for KQ:KP when the pawn is a rook or bishop pawn on the
  7th/2nd rank with its king nearby and the other king sufficiently far away.

- Added draw detection for KR:KP when the pawn is on the 7th/2nd rank with its
  king nearby and the other king sufficiently far away.

- Quiescence search detects checking captures and evasions.

- Added selective deepening for passed pawn pushes in the endgame.

- No under-promotions in quiescence and the sorting pre-search.

- Even the pre-search gives a mini-PV of 3 plies depth, and is is faster.

- Fixed a bug that prevented the detection of 50 moves draw in the search
  tree.

- The draw avoidance during the opening checks more thoroughly whether or
  not to allow draw by repetition.

- Hash tables are used also in the pre-search phase for move ordering.

- The aging management of the hash tables deletes outdated entries.

- During search, the PV is preserved if possible, preventing PV shrinkage
  because of hash table cuts.

- Added more opening knowledge.

- The mate searching mode is about 30 % faster.

- Changed the dialogue box "EN" option labels to "OK".

- Updated the ARM compiler version to 6.3.1 Q2/2017.


PC version:
- Changed the protocol from Xboard to UCI.

- The engine can be throttled from 100 % down to 1 %.

- Added eval blurring for the middlegame.

- Fixed the "easy move detection".

- Fixed the lazy eval enabling in the middlegame.

New platforms:
- Added support for Android (engine only without GUI). Works with
  ARM-Android 4.1 or higher.
- Added support for Raspberry Pi (engine only without GUI). Works with
  Raspberry Pi 1/2/3/Zero with Debian Jessie.

Note: iOS support is not planned because Apple has decided than iOS users do
not need GPL'ed software.

******************************************************************************

V1.11:
- There is now an Xboard capable version of the CT800 for PCs. For Windows,
  pre-built binaries are supplied. The advanced CT800 time management is not
  fully implemented in the PC version, but the rest is.

- Added the following openings as passive knowledge for Black:
  Shirov Gambit.

- Added the following openings as passive knowledge for White:
  Elephant Gambit and Budapest Gambit.

- Minor speedup in opening book lookup.

- Hash tables are not completely cleared before a move, only 25 %.

- Minor code cleanup in the opening book tool and the crc tool.

Note: the stack analysis from V1.10 is still valid for V1.11.

******************************************************************************

V1.10:

- Easy move detection implemented. If there is only one way to capture a piece
  and no trap alert is triggered, the easy move is played quickly.

- Enhanced the opening book, especially with stupid opening moves like 1. h3.
  Some people try this to throw the CT800 immediately out of the book.

- Time management is more aggressive, concentrating on the first 30 moves,
  both for game-in and tournament time controls.

- Added an trade delay recognition for the PV search. A 1:1 trade right at the
  end of the search tree (before quiescence) will trigger a deepening by
  1 ply. This increases the tactical solidity in the PV.

- Corrected the king safety evaluation for the pawn shelter.

- Sorting presearch uses the opponent's threat move for more cut-offs.

- Added some backports of the update NG-Play v9.86 to v9.87 that speed up the
  search.

- Code cleanup with more consistent function naming according to their module.
  Documented read-only or read-write usage of external globals.

- The move sorting uses a hybrid between Selection sort and Shellsort.

- Minor program speedup and RAM gains.

- Backup RAM is generally locked and only unlocked for write operations.

- The random generator also uses the timing of the user key actions as
  source of randomness.

- Battery monitoring for immediate shutdown also works during menu access,
  when using the position viewer or during other dialogues.

- Before starting another game, a battery check with waiting dialogue and
  animated progress bar appears.

- "Always on" light mode works.

- Saving the display contrast setting works.

- Custom display characters make the dialogue boxes look cleaner.

- The opening book is using a CRC-40 instead of a CRC-32 by combining a
  CRC-32 with a CRC-8.

- There is an Easter egg in the ARM version. Looking up the source text is
  cheating!

- The ARM version build script / batch file automatically checks the compiler
  path and generates the opening book.

- Changed the ARM compiler version from 5.4.1 to 6.3.1.

- Added the overall software architecture to the documentation, i.e. what
  which source file actually contains.

- Updated the manual.

- The opening book tool allows pawn promotions as implicit queening.
  The error messages of the book tool have changed to intellegible clear
  text. Besides plain ASCII for the input book text file, also UTF-8 with
  and without BOM (byte order mark) are supported. White space allows both
  space and tab. Leading white spaces in lines and empty lines are
  accepted.
  The cache indices calculation is done by the opening book tool at compile
  time.
  Cleaned up and refactored the code for more clarity and robustness.

- Minor code cleanup for the crc tool (no functional impact).

- The Windows binaries for the opening book tool and the crc tool are compiled
  using MingW (GCC 6.3.0) instead of Visual Studio.

******************************************************************************

V1.01: first official release.

******************************************************************************
