shaffer@athena.crd.ge.com (Phillip L. Shaffer) (02/27/90)
We are looking at putting together a system consisting of
Transputers on VME cards linking together VME chassis, which
contain other processor (68020) cards. The Transputers will
serve as communication and redundancy management processors.
I've identified 2 sources of VME cards which have dual-ported
memory onto the VME bus: Inmos and Paracom. Inmos has two cards
(B011 and the just-out B016); Paracom has one card with dual-port
RAM (BBK-V2). If anyone has experience with any of these cards,
or other VME Transputer cards with DP RAM, I would apppreciate
hearing about it (I am aware of Transtech and Meiko VME cards
with TRAM slots; I want DP RAM which these don't have).
For several reasons, I am leaning toward the Paracom boards. The
problem is the software development system. There are several
choices:
- Helios operating system. This seems to require a lot of
overhead on each node, but it does allow run-time debugging, a
major plus. Can't use Occam on same node with Helios.
- Multitool (based on TDS). This allows choice of the 3L C
compiler or the Parsec ParC parallel C compiler. 3L allows
linking with Occam, which might be useful for low-level access.
ParC apparently doesn't allow linking with Occam, but is supposed
to provide equivalent parallel features. Run-time source-level
debugging is not supported, only post-mortem debugging.
- Stand-alone C compiler from Logical Systems. Again debugging
appears to be rather primitive (i.e. not run-time source-level).
I would be interested in anyone's experience with these or
similar development systems, or any recommendations. Thanks.
Phillip L. Shaffer shaffer@crd.ge.com
GE Corporate Research & Development uunet!crd.ge.com!shaffer
Building KW, Room D211
P.O. Box 8, Schenectady NY 12301
--
Phillip L. Shaffer shaffer@crd.ge.com
GE Corporate Research & Development uunet!crd.ge.com!shaffer
Building KW, Room D211
P.O. Box 8, Schenectady NY 12301shaffer@ra.crd.ge.com (Phillip L. Shaffer) (02/27/90)
We are looking at putting together a system consisting of
Transputers on VME cards linking together VME chassis, which
contain other processor (68020) cards. The Transputers will
serve as communication and redundancy management processors.
I've identified 2 sources of VME cards which have dual-ported
memory onto the VME bus: Inmos and Paracom. Inmos has two cards
(B011 and the just-out B016); Paracom has one card with dual-port
RAM (BBK-V2). If anyone has experience with any of these cards,
or other VME Transputer cards with DP RAM, I would apppreciate
hearing about it (I am aware of Transtech and Meiko VME cards
with TRAM slots; I want DP RAM which these don't have).
For several reasons, I am leaning toward the Paracom boards. The
problem is the software development system. There are several
choices:
- Helios operating system. This seems to require a lot of
overhead on each node, but it does allow run-time debugging, a
major plus. Can't use Occam on same node with Helios.
- Multitool (based on TDS). This allows choice of the 3L C
compiler or the Parsec ParC parallel C compiler. 3L allows
linking with Occam, which might be useful for low-level access.
ParC apparently doesn't allow linking with Occam, but is supposed
to provide equivalent parallel features. Run-time source-level
debugging is not supported, only post-mortem debugging.
- Stand-alone C compiler from Logical Systems. Again debugging
appears to be rather primitive (i.e. not run-time source-level).
I would be interested in anyone's experience with these or
similar development systems, or any recommendations. Thanks.
Phillip L. Shaffer shaffer@crd.ge.com
GE Corporate Research & Development uunet!crd.ge.com!shaffer
Building KW, Room D211
P.O. Box 8, Schenectady NY 12301