PVR%bgerug51.earn@NSS.CS.UCL.AC.UK (Patrick Van Renterghem / Transputer Lab) (09/26/88)
Cc: whitcomb%kobot.decnet@venus.ycc.yale.edu Hello, Who wants to see Parsytec's products on this side of the Atlantic, has to come to Antwerp, Belgium on october 18th. Parsytec produces VME and PC boards and the 64 or 256 Megaframe Supercluster supercomputer, running the Helios operating system, an own version of TDS, called Megatool and C, Fortran, ... compilers. The incompatibility between Parsytec and Inmos-like products may cause some problems, but their boards are industrial and of high quality, but expensive (it is a German product, remember :-)). Two things that I would like to mention are: - the differential link interface, RS422 compatible, that goes at least 10 meters, but is incompatible with Inmos and the rest of the world. Has anyone knowledge of cheap solutions to this interfacing problem (CSA Part.17 costs #850 in the UK) ? - Due to Parsytec's own reset concept, the server and the Megatool TDS are only 95 % compatible with the Inmos stuff. Has anyone more info on what they did different ? All these things do not only protect Parsytec's market share, but also makes the life of people constructing transputer systems with boards of different manufacturers really difficult. Watch out ! Not only Parsytec is at the Antwerp seminar, one of te largest exhibitions of transputer technology in Europe, but also Microway, Inmos, Caplin Cybernetics Corp., CSA, Definicon, Meiko, Protheus, Niche Technology, 3L, Parsec Developments, Quintek, Sension and Sheldonberry. My apologies to the Americans for another message that says nothing about Topologix, Cogent, Parasoft, Trollius, Paramax, Nth Graphics, ..., ..., but these companies are just not showing (or ready to show) their products in Europe. Pity ! The most important hardware and software products that I saw demonstrated in Southampton (one of the best organized OUG meetings I have ever been to, congratulations to Charlie Askew) were: Niche's PRE, Perihelion's ATW (or is it ABAQ ?), although it was never powered on, Quintek's frame grabber and Helios. Helios still crashes every 5 or 6 non-trivial commands, but there are a lot of developers improving it and a lot of companies have said to support it. See you in Antwerp, Patrick Van Renterghem, seminar coordinator "Transputers for Industrial Applications", State University of Ghent, address above.
PVR@BGERUG51.BITNET (Patrick Van Renterghem / Transputer Lab) (09/26/88)
Cc: whitcomb%kobot.decnet@venus.ycc.yale.edu Hello, Who wants to see Parsytec's products on this side of the Atlantic, has to come to Antwerp, Belgium on october 18th. Parsytec produces VME and PC boards and the 64 or 256 Megaframe Supercluster supercomputer, running the Helios operating system, an own version of TDS, called Megatool and C, Fortran, ... compilers. The incompatibility between Parsytec and Inmos-like products may cause some problems, but their boards are industrial and of high quality, but expensive (it is a German product, remember :-)). Two things that I would like to mention are: - the differential link interface, RS422 compatible, that goes at least 10 meters, but is incompatible with Inmos and the rest of the world. Has anyone knowledge of cheap solutions to this interfacing problem (CSA Part.17 costs #850 in the UK) ? - Due to Parsytec's own reset concept, the server and the Megatool TDS are only 95 % compatible with the Inmos stuff. Has anyone more info on what they did different ? All these things do not only protect Parsytec's market share, but also makes the life of people constructing transputer systems with boards of different manufacturers really difficult. Watch out ! Not only Parsytec is at the Antwerp seminar, one of te largest exhibitions of transputer technology in Europe, but also Microway, Inmos, Caplin Cybernetics Corp., CSA, Definicon, Meiko, Protheus, Niche Technology, 3L, Parsec Developments, Quintek, Sension and Sheldonberry. My apologies to the Americans for another message that says nothing about Topologix, Cogent, Parasoft, Trollius, Paramax, Nth Graphics, ..., ..., but these companies are just not showing (or ready to show) their products in Europe. Pity ! The most important hardware and software products that I saw demonstrated in Southampton (one of the best organized OUG meetings I have ever been to, congratulations to Charlie Askew) were: Niche's PRE, Perihelion's ATW (or is it ABAQ ?), although it was never powered on, Quintek's frame grabber and Helios. Helios still crashes every 5 or 6 non-trivial commands, but there are a lot of developers improving it and a lot of companies have said to support it. See you in Antwerp, Patrick Van Renterghem, seminar coordinator "Transputers for Industrial Applications", State University of Ghent, address above.