[net.arch] Trans-puters??

pvl@houxh.UUCP (10/10/83)

   I was just approached with the question of what I knew about
"Trans-puters".  I had never heard the term.  Any help from you
out there?
  Pete LaMaster BTL NJ (201)949-0040  ihnp4!houxh!pvl

ken@turtleva.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (10/17/83)

Transputer is a term coined by Inmos for their new type of NMOS
microprocessor.  Everything to follow is based on imperfect memory
(mine), from speaking with a gentleman from Inmos, U.K., at SIGGRAPH.

It is due to come out in the first half of next year.  Its main claim
to fame is high processing speed (more like a RISC) with a second bus
for interprocessor communication and other I/O.  Its architecture is
supposed to accommodate message passing and distributed processing.  I
doubt whether it'll have memory mapping, virtual memory, or any of the
other things that operating system hackers love to have.  Then again,
I've been looking at it strictly from a hardware standpoint.  It shows
promise, but detailed information won't be available for several
months.  68-pin chip carrier.

			Ken Turkowski
		    CADLINC, Palo Alto
		{decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!ken