[comp.sys.transputer] 64K transputer system

davidb@inmos.co.uk (David Boreham) (03/15/90)

Someone asked about a 64K node system.
Then Steve Zenith posted something which I think meant that
there is no 64K node system.

Well, I've never heard of a machine that big but there are
quite a few black hole tranpsuter projects around which I'm
sure even Steve hasn't heard about :)

Biggest machine I've seen was 1K nodes and the biggest I've heard
about is the Marconi radar in this weeks Electronics Weekly which 
as 4K nodes.

David.

stiv@stat5.rice.edu (david n stivers) (03/16/90)

 There is a machine called the Connection Machine, which is made by
Thinking Machines of Cambridge, Massachusetts which has 64K nodes.
The CPU's aren't transputers, though.

Incidentally, I'm using 4 Levco Translink boards w/4 20Mhz T800's on each
board installed in a MacII.  I'm using a beta version of Express 3.0.

Is anyone out there using a similiar set up? Any comments on Levco?
My impression is that they're not doing so well.  They have a decent 
product, but writing drivers and stuff for the Mac is a real pain in the
butt.  Fortunately Express does all that for you, but like I said, it's a
beta version.

david n stivers
stiv@stat5.rice.edu

zenith-steven@cs.yale.edu (Steven Ericsson Zenith) (03/16/90)

In article <397.9003151333@brac.inmos.co.uk>, davidb@inmos.co.uk (David
Boreham) writes:
> 
> Well, I've never heard of a machine that big but there are
> quite a few black hole tranpsuter projects around which I'm
> sure even Steve hasn't heard about :)
> 

Black holes with this much mass are pretty difficult to hide.
Checkout the number of transputers sold in the past
two years and you'll see what I mean :-)

> 
> David.

--
.                                                                        .
Steven Ericsson Zenith              *            email: zenith@cs.yale.edu
Department of Computer Science      |            voice: (203) 432 1278
Yale University 51 Prospect Street New Haven CT 06520 USA.
     "All can know beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness"

iang@wraith.cs.uow.oz (Ian Gorton) (03/19/90)

In article <5788@brazos.Rice.edu>, stiv@stat5.rice.edu (david n stivers) writes:
> Is anyone out there using a similiar set up? Any comments on Levco?
> My impression is that they're not doing so well.  They have a decent 
> product, but writing drivers and stuff for the Mac is a real pain in the
> butt.  Fortunately Express does all that for you, but like I said, it's a
> beta version.


We've got a Levco board and TDS running on the Mac. The hardware seems
fine, but the TDS is STILL a beta version, and bug-ridden with very
poor documentation. This situation has not changed for over a year, 
despite constant communications (from me, not Levco). I'm at the stage
where I'm going to move to PCs if they don't release production software
soon.

I would not recommend anyone to buy Levco products.

-Ian