geraint@prg.oxford.ac.uk (Geraint Jones) (08/01/89)
Thought I'd throw this item into transputer information pool to see if it would
generate any further details.
Quote from Observer Scotland July 30th...
"Traders whose business with the Soviet Union has slumped because of
restrictions on what they are allowed to sell have been asked by the Russians
and the Eastern bloc to act instead as a doorway to Western markets...
"Scots businessman, Mr Nick Cameron, managing director of CAT Electro,
Edinburgh, who has just returned from a trip to Communist countries, was
astounded to find Bulgarians offering transputers, a supercomputing system
invented in Britain just two years ago"...
The article goes to say that transputer boards are expected to be available
by autumn this year - but gives no other details.
Comments anyone?
Matt Wells, University of Aberdeen.wm@CSE.OGC.EDU (Wm Leler) (08/29/89)
> Quote from Observer Scotland July 30th... > "Traders whose business with the Soviet Union has slumped because of > restrictions on what they are allowed to sell have been asked by the Russians > and the Eastern bloc to act instead as a doorway to Western markets... > "Scots businessman, Mr Nick Cameron, managing director of CAT Electro, > Edinburgh, who has just returned from a trip to Communist countries, was > astounded to find Bulgarians offering transputers, a supercomputing system > invented in Britain just two years ago"... > The article goes to say that transputer boards are expected to be > available by autumn this year - but gives no other details. > Comments anyone? > Matt Wells, University of Aberdeen. I was in Bulgaria two weeks ago, and I strongly doubt if the article quoted above is accurate. It is difficult for Bulgarians to (legitimately) obtain transputers. I was shown one transputer-based system, but it was a prototype, and certainly wasn't being manufactured. I don't know what the situation is in the rest of Eastern Europe. Personally, I think export restrictions on things like transputers are a bit silly. Not because of any ideological reasons, but until someone breeds a microprocessor-sniffing dog and while it is possible to buy transputers at walk-in electronics stores (especially in Japan), such restrictions only prevent legitimate researchers from having free access to transputers, not the military users that are the reasons such restrictions exist. On the other hand, the Bulgarians *are* selling some software products in the West. Quite nice ones. (These opinions are definitely my own; nobody else's, and certainly not my government's!) Wm Leler