enbody@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr Richard Enbody) (10/15/88)
Problem: I want to establish an undergraduate parallel programming course. Possible Solution: Buy Transputer boards for MacII's. Questions: (1) I know that MacII boards are available, but (a) How many Transputers can you put in a MacII? (I'd like 16. I realize that 16 might mean skimping on memory, but my goal is to have students explore as much parallelism as possible as opposed to doing production work.) (b) Does anyone have a ballpark figure for cost? (I need to make a proposal this week. In addition, floating point is nice, but not necessary. However, I want to consider the faster (800?) Transputer- after all, we are interested in exploring speed.) (2) For an undergraduate class I want a stable, reliable system so enough hardware is available for the students to get their assignments done. How reliable are the Transputers and their boards? Is there any support? (3) Does anyone have experience with an undergraduate programming class on Transputers? What special problems did you encounter? (4) What is the programming environment? I know about Hoare's CSP, but have never programmed in Occam. The concept of Occam is fine with me; but, facing reality in the USA, is something like an extended C available for the Transputer? If so, is that a reasonable approach? Thank you for your help. - rich enbody enbody@cps.msu.edu