braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Moshe Braner) (09/14/88)
[Another East-bound posting...] Could somebody list what transputer boards are available that plug into an IBM-PC (XT or AT) style bus? How do they differ? Which ones are compatible in some sense with the Inmos B004 or B008? How many transputers on a board? Configurable? Piggy-back sub-boards? How much RAM? Software included? Software available? Price? I'll start by mentioning that the Inmos B004 board (the classic transputer evaluation board) does not support interrupts. If you want your I/O to proceed in the background (possibly via DMA) you need the newer B008 board. The latter includes a link adaptor (8-bit-parallel <--> transputer-link adaptor chip, the Inmos C012), sockets for plugging in up to 10 modules (each with one transputer and some RAM), and a C004 crossbar switch chip for custom arrangement of the links, programmed by a dedicated T212 16-bit transputer. The first transputer's link 0 is attached to the C012, and the software running on the transputer cannot tell whether the transfer is simple or DMA. In the DMA case the IBM-PC DMA chip can do the transfer while other software is running on the PC. An interrupt is generated when the transfer is done. The DMA speed of transfer is about twice that of optimized polling from an assembly-language driver. For non-DMA transfers, an interrupt may also be generated each time the link adaptor is ready to send or receive a byte. - Moshe Braner