Editing Feng-hsiung Hsu

{{short description|American computer scientist and electrical engineer (born 1959)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{use American English|date=August 2019}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Xǔ (surname)|Hsu]]|lang=Chinese}}{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Feng-hsiung Hsu
| native_name       = 許峰雄
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|January 1, 1959}}
| birth_place       = [[Keelung]], Taiwan
| fields            = [[Computer science]]
| workplaces        = [[IBM]]
| alma_mater        = [[National Taiwan University]] ([[B. S.|BS]])<br />[[Carnegie Mellon University]] ([[PhD]])
| thesis_title      = Large-scale parallelization of alpha-beta search: An algorithmic and architectural study with computer chess
| thesis_url        = https://www.proquest.com/docview/303684538
| thesis_year       = 1989
| known_for         = Designing [[Deep Blue (chess computer)|Deep Blue]]
| awards            = [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] (1991)
}}
'''Feng-hsiung Hsu''' ({{zh|c=許峰雄|p=Xǔ Fēngxióng}}; born January 1, 1959)<ref>[https://www.ithistory.org/honor-roll/dr-feng-hsiung-hsu IT History Society]</ref> (nicknamed '''Crazy Bird''')<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Computer History Museum|work=Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess|title=Images|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/viewAll.php?sec=thm-42f15cec6680f&sel=thm-42f15d1de5733&table=item_still_image|access-date=February 24, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322171733/http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/viewAll.php?sec=thm-42f15cec6680f&sel=thm-42f15d1de5733&table=item_still_image|archive-date=March 22, 2007}}</ref> is a Taiwanese-American [[computer scientist]] and [[electrical engineer]]. His work led to the creation of the [[Deep Thought (chess computer)|Deep Thought]] chess computer, which led to the first chess playing computer to defeat [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmasters]] in tournament play and the first to achieve a certified grandmaster-level rating.

Hsu was the architect and the principal designer of the [[IBM Deep Blue]] chess computer. He was awarded the 1991 ACM [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] for his contributions in architecture and algorithms for chess machines.<ref>[http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/press/html/g.6.5.shtml Biographies Of The IBM Deep Blue Team], Press Material</ref> He is the author of the book ''Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion''. 

==Career==
Hsu was born in [[Keelung]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zV0W4729UqkC&pg=PA277 |title=Behind deep blue: building the computer that defeated the world chess champion |isbn=0691090653 |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=March 12, 2012|last1=Hsu |first1=Feng-Hsiung |year=2002 |publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref> [[Taiwan]], and came to the United States after graduating from [[National Taiwan University]] with a [[Bachelor of Science]] (B.S.) in [[electrical engineering]]. He started his graduate work at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] in the field of [[computer chess]] in the year 1985.<ref name=IBMResearchScientist>{{cite web |author=IBM |title=IBM Research Scientist: Feng-Hsiung Hsu |date=February 26, 2007 |url=http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/meet/html/d.4.4.html }}</ref>  In 1988 he was part of the "Deep Thought" team that won the Fredkin Intermediate Prize for Deep Thought's grandmaster-level performance.<ref name=ComputerHistoryMuseumDefeating>{{cite web |author=Computer History Museum |title=Defeating the World Chess Champion |date=February 24, 2007 |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/main.php?sec=thm-42f15cec6680f&sel=thm-42f15d3399c41# }}</ref>  In 1989 he joined IBM to design a chess-playing computer<ref name=Shroder /> and received a Ph.D. in [[computer science]] with honors from [[Carnegie Mellon University]].<ref name=IBMResearchScientist /> He was the recipient of the 1990 Mephisto Best-Publication Award for his doctoral dissertation. 

In 1991, the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] awarded Hsu a [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] for his work on Deep Blue.  In 1996, the supercomputer lost to world chess champion [[Garry Kasparov]].<ref name=ComputerHistoryMuseumDefeating /> After the loss, Hsu's team prepared for a re-match.  During the re-match with Kasparov, the supercomputer had doubled the processing power it had during the previous match. On May 11, 1997, Kasparov lost the sixth and final game, and, with it, the match (2½–3½).<ref name=ComputerHistoryMuseumDefeating />

Prior to building the supercomputer [[IBM Deep Blue|Deep Blue]]<ref name=Shroder>{{Cite web |url=http://members.home.nl/matador/chess820.htm |title=Shroder, Ed. "Historic Pictures." 2007. February 24, 2007 |access-date=February 24, 2007 |archive-date=May 14, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514105036/http://members.home.nl/matador/chess820.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> that defeated Kasparov, Hsu worked on many other chess computers. He started with [[ChipTest]], a simple chess-playing chip, based on a design from [[Unix]]-inventor [[Ken Thompson]]'s [[Belle (chess machine)|Belle]], and very different from the other chess-playing computer being developed at Carnegie Mellon, [[HiTech]], which was developed by [[Hans Berliner]] and included 64 different chess chips for the move generator instead of the one in Hsu's series. Hsu went on to build the successively better chess-playing computers [[Deep Thought (chess computer)|Deep Thought]], [[IBM Deep Blue|Deep Thought II]], and [[IBM Deep Blue|Deep Blue Prototype]].<ref name=IBMResearchScientist />

In 2003, Hsu joined Microsoft Research Asia, in Beijing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com.cn/BIG5/it/49/4695/20030509/987977.html|title=專訪：深藍項目之父許峰雄何以跳槽|work=[[People's Daily]]|date=May 29, 2003|access-date=December 21, 2019|archive-date=February 21, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221051528/http://people.com.cn/BIG5/it/49/4695/20030509/987977.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2007, he stated the view that brute-force computation has eclipsed humans in chess, and it could soon do the same in the [[go (game)|ancient Asian game of Go]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct07/5552|title=Cracking GO|quote=Brute-force computation has eclipsed humans in chess, and it could soon do the same in this ancient Asian game|author=Feng-Hsiung Hsu|work=IEEE Spectrum|date=October 2007|via=ieee spectrum online|access-date=March 12, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317022230/http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct07/5552 |archive-date=March 17, 2009}}</ref> This [[AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol|came to pass]] nine years later in 2016.

The chess computer [[HiTech]] was donated to the [[Computer History Museum]] by Hsu.<ref name="A:A">{{Citation |year=1988 |title=HiTech Chess Machine |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/chess/art-431f4cc17c77f/}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion''. [[Princeton University Press]], 2002. ({{ISBN|0-691-09065-3}}). Review by [[ChessBase.com]]

==See also==
* [[Arimaa]]
* [[Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov]]
* [[Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1]]
* [[Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1997, Game 6]]
*''[[Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine]]''
* [[ChipTest]], the first in the line of chess computers co-developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu
* [[Deep Thought (chess computer)|Deep Thought]], the second in the line of chess computers co-developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu
* [[Deep Blue (chess computer)|Deep Blue]], another chess computer co-developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu, being the first computer to win a chess match against the world champion
* [[List of pioneers in computer science]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/meet/html/d.4.4.html Feng-hsiung Hsu] at [[IBM]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110519051727/http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/oral-history/hsu.oral_history.2005.102644995/hsu.oral_history_transcript.2005.102644995.pdf Oral History of Feng-Hsiung Hsu.] Interviewed by: Dag Spicer. Recorded: February 14, 2005, at [[Computer History Museum]], [[Mountain View, California]]
*[https://dblp.uni-trier.de/pid/70/1291.html Feng-hsiung Hsu's papers] at DBLP
*[http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1086452 Chess, China, and Education: A Ubiquity Interview with F-H Hsu]
{{Hopper winners}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsu, Feng-hsiung}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:American Go players]]
[[Category:Go (game) writers]]
[[Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni]]
[[Category:Computer chess people]]
[[Category:Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates]]
[[Category:National Taiwan University alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists from Keelung]]
[[Category:Taiwanese emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:1959 births]]