Mephisto was a line of

chess computers In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess engine is usually a back end with a command-line interface with n ...

sold by Hegener & Glaser (H+G). In addition to integrated travel and sensory computers, they also sold a line of modular electronic autosensory boards (Modular, Exclusive, München, and Bavaria) which could accept different program, processor, and display modules. Its strongest software was written by Richard Lang, who later ported it to personal computers as ''Psion'' and

ChessGenius ChessGenius is the name of a chess-playing computer program written by Richard Lang who has in the past written programs that have won the World Computer Chess Championship on 10 occasions. History ChessGenius is a continuation of a series of ...

. Lang's Mephisto programs won six

World Computer Chess Championship World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically since 1974 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association. It is often held in conjunction with ...

s (WCCC) from 1984 to 1990. H&G also sold engines licensed from Johan de Koning, Ed Schröder, and Frans Morsch. Different models used different 8-bit,

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mo ...

and 32-bit

processors A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, ...

, including

MOS Technology 6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

, Motorola 68HC05, Motorola 68000 and others. Hegener & Glaser and its Mephisto brand were bought in 1994 by

Saitek Saitek is a designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics founded in 1979 by Swiss technologist Eric Winkler. They are best known for their PC gaming controllers, mice, keyboards, and their numerous analogue flight controllers such as joystic ...

. Their computers currently sold under the Mephisto brand use programs written by Frans Morsch.

Hegener & Glaser (Mephisto)

* 1969 established in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

by Manfred Hegener and Florian Glaser for the production of semiconductors * 1978 the programmers Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne came into contact with H+G Thomas Nitsche and Elmar Henne * 1980 the "Mephisto"

Tradename A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

was created, nicknamed ''Brikett'' (German for

briquette A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French word ' ...

) — the first German Chess Computer — programmed by Thomas Nietsche and Elmar Henne, appeared in stores. * 1983 Introduction of the Modular system, with the Mobil, Modular, and Exclusive boards and MM I module. * 1984 with Richard Lang and his Psion chess (Winner of

World Microcomputer Chess Championship World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically since 1974 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association. It is often held in conjunction with ...

1984 in Glasgow) began a long series of World Championship successes. * 1985 introduction of Lang's first Mephisto module, the Amsterdam 68000 * 1989 over 90% of all chess computers sold in Germany were Mephistos * 1989 H+G buys "Fidelity Electronics Inc." for ~ 7 Million US $ * 1990 the market for high-priced chess computers collapses. The cause is the growth of high-performance 486 PCs and the availability of newly developed low-cost strong

chess software Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black in chess, White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's King (chess), king. It is sometimes called interna ...

for PCs. * 1992 H+G shows losses of 28 Million DM * 1992 Ed Schröder wins with Gideon 3.1 (later sold as Mephisto Risc 2) the open 7. WCCC — ahead of large mainframe computers and special hardware machines * 1994 H+G is bought by Saitek for ~ 7 Million DM * 1994 Richard Lang's Genius (Mephisto London) beats

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

in the Intel World Chess Grand Prix Turnier in London on a

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and P ...

Processor * 1997 Manfred Hegener and Ossi Weiner form the company "Millennium 2000 GmbH Hegener & Weiner" and produce the "Millennium Schachpartner 2000", sold at 99 DM * 2005 Phoenix Chess Systems releases the Resurrection module for existing Mephisto modular boards. The hardware uses a 200 MHz

ARM processor ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

to run modern

chess engines In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess engine is usually a back end with a command-line interface wit ...

, resulting in the strongest dedicated chess computer ever created. * 2007 Phoenix Chess Systems releases an updated module set, the Resurrection II, with a faster 500 MHz

XScale XScale is a microarchitecture for central processing units initially designed by Intel implementing the ARM architecture (version 5) instruction set. XScale comprises several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE (see more below), with some ...

processor.

Mephisto Modular System

Boards: * Mephisto Mobil (folding magnetic board) * Mephisto Modular (plastic autosensory board) * Mephisto Exclusive (40x40 cm wooden autosensory board) * Mephisto München (50x50 cm wooden autosensory board) * Mephisto Bavaria (50x50 cm wooden piece recognition board) Modules: Mephisto Marco Polo * Mephisto Almeria 68000 * Mephisto Almeria 68020 * Mephisto Amsterdam * Mephisto B&P * Mephisto Dallas 68000 * Mephisto Dallas 68020 * Mephisto Genius 68030 * Mephisto III-S Glasgow * Mephisto London 68000 * Mephisto London 68020 * Mephisto London 68030 * Mephisto Lyon 68000 * Mephisto Lyon 68020 * Mephisto Magellan * Mephisto Mirage * Mephisto MM I * Mephisto MM II * Mephisto MM IV * Mephisto MM V * Mephisto MM VI * Mephisto MM VI Schröder - was never distributed * Mephisto Mystery Modul * Mephisto PC Modul * Mephisto Polgar * Mephisto Polgar 10 MHz Beware: modified Exclusive Board * Mephisto Portorose 68000 * Mephisto Portorose 68020 * Mephisto Rebell 5.0 * Mephisto Risc 1MB * Mephisto Risc 2 * Mephisto Roma 68000 * Mephisto Roma 68020 * Mephisto Roma II * Mephisto Senator * Mephisto Vancouver 68000 * Mephisto Vancouver 68020

Tournament machines

Mephisto sold limited edition versions of Lang's championship winning programs in dedicated boards with upgraded processors, cooling, and memory, similar to the hardware used in the championship tournaments. * Mephisto TM Roma (68020, 25 MHz) * Mephisto TM Almeria (68020, 30 MHz) * Mephisto TM Portorose (68030, 36 MHz) * Mephisto TM Lyon (68030, 36 MHz) * Mephisto TM Vancouver (68030, 36 MHz) * Mephisto TM London (68030, 36 MHz) * Mephisto Wundermaschine (80486, 66 MHz)

Other chess computers from the manufacturer Hegener & Glaser

* Mephisto Academy * Mephisto Advanced Travel Chess Computer * Mephisto Alaska * Mephisto America * Mephisto America II * Mephisto Atlanta * Mephisto Avanti * Mephisto Beach * Mephisto Berlin 68000 * Mephisto Berlin Professional * Mephisto Bistro * Mephisto Champion * Mephisto Chessbook * Mephisto Chess Challenger * Mephisto Chess Explorer * Mephisto Chess Trainer * Mephisto College * Mephisto ESB 6000 * Mephisto Europa * Mephisto Europa A * Mephisto Excalibur * Mephisto Excalibur Glasgow * Mephisto Expert Travel Chess * Mephisto Explorer Pro * Mephisto HG 170 * Mephisto HG 240 * Mephisto HG 440 * Mephisto HG 550 * Mephisto I * Mephisto II * Mephisto III * Mephisto Junior (Sensor) * Mephisto Junior (Tasten) * Mephisto Junior Master Chess Computer * Mephisto Madison * Mephisto Maestro Travel Chess Computer * Mephisto Manhattan * Mephisto Marco Polo * Mephisto Master Chess * Mephisto Mega IV * Mein erster Mephisto * Mephisto Merlin 16K * Mephisto MeXs * Mephisto Miami * Mephisto Micro Travel Chess Computer * Mephisto Milano * Mephisto Milano Pro * Mephisto Mini * Mephisto Modena * Mephisto Monaco * Mephisto Mondial * Mephisto Mondial II * Mephisto Mondial 68000XL * Mephisto Montana * Mephisto Monte Carlo * Mephisto Monte Carlo IV * Mephisto Monte Carlo IV LE * Mephisto Montreal 68000 * Mephisto Montreux (Johan de Koning) * Mephisto Mystery * Mephisto Mythos * Mephisto

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...

* Mephisto PC Schachbrett (Electronic chess board connected to a PC) * Mephisto Phantom * Mephisto Schachakademie * Mephisto Schachschule * Mephisto Schachschule II * Mephisto Super Mondial * Mephisto Super Mondial II * Mephisto Supermini * Mephisto Talking Chess Trainer * Mephisto Talking Chess Academy * Mephisto Travel Chess * Russian made chess computer ″ШК-1″ (ShK-1 for ″shakhmatniy kompyuter″ – Chess Computer) using "Mephisto H&G OEM chip"Chess Computer-1
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