john@bby-bc.UUCP (john) (11/27/87)
Hello - A company named Microway is advertising a transputer development/ evaluation board in the Nov. 24 issue of PC magazine. It includes a T800 and 2mb as well as Occam. This sounds like one of the Inmos evaluation boards ( I wrote to Inmos for more details on their PC/AT boards some time ago but have not recieved a reply). Does anyone have any experience with this (or a similar) board or the company? What is the development environment like? Is the C compiler available for a non-outrageous price? The company wants $2000 for the board and Occam - does anyone know of a less expensive source? thanks in advance for any comments or information forthcoming, john .....!ubc-vision!fornax!bby-bc!john
sid@linus.UUCP (Sid Stuart) (11/30/87)
Microway designs and makes their own boards. I ate lunch with the designer of the quadputer board at an Inmos presentation. He was finishing up on the board when we spoke in early November. Prices are as follows: Monputers: T414 w/2 meg $1,495 T800 w/2 meg $1,995 Quadputers: 4 T414's w/4 meg $6,000 4 T800's w/4 meg $8,000 Upgrade Quadputer to 16 meg $5,600 Software: (Lattice Logic, I think) C $750 Fortran $750 Prolog $750 Pascal $750 TDS $1,500 Occam Free with tranputer board. Phone: 617-934-2414 Sid Stuart - 617-271-2839
ddd@thumperbellcore.com (Dorothy DeLuca) (12/02/87)
The T-800 with 2 Meg DRAM(5 wait state - very slow) board is available
from Microway now, however the T800 chip has a bug which causes problems
when communicating over links. I think the reason that most companies
do not have T800 products at this time is that they are waiting for the
next version of the chip (available early next year) which has
this bug cleared up. Microway's board does come with the Occam compiler
however this is a standalone occam compiler. It will not allow you to
load a network of transputers, not that you would want to since this
version T800 will crash if you do. It costs $1995. To be able to load
a network you will need to get the TDS (transputer development system
with Occam), a very nasty thing. This will run you another $1500. The
C compiler from Microway costs $750, it is implemented the same way
that Inmos implements C. That is you write the sequential portions of
your code in C and link these sequential modules together with Occam.
Inmos' C is also $750. Inmos' transputer boards will, in the near
future, be made up of modules. The base board will consist of 10 slots
for adding transputer modules, it will also contain a C004 cross point
switch for establishing link connections (NO MORE PHYSICAL LINK
CONNECTIONS TO BE MADE!!!!). The C004 also allows for dynamic link
connections to be made. There are also edge connectors for connecting
links from transputers on other boards to the C004. The cost of the
base board will be $1225. The modules will also be stackable depending
on how much power is available from the PC. The available modules will
be:
T800 with 32K SRAM, takes up 1 slot - $1130
T800 with 1M ZERO WAIT STATE DRAM, 4 slots - $1875
T800 with 2M ZERO OR ONE WAIT STATE DRAM*, 2 slots - $2375
T414 with 32K SRAM, 1 slot - $672
T414 with 1M ZERO WAIT STATE DRAM, 4 slots - $1505
*I'm not sure here, I think it's 1 wait state.
If you call now a deal can be made for $5500, which will include the base
board, a T800 module with 1Meg zero wait state RAM, and the TDS latest version.
(Call Craig Davidson at (301) 995-6952. He's the one that offered me the
deal.) This kind of product will be worth the wait in my opinion.
With the new board T414 modules and T800 modules will all be
interchangeable. It will be easy for the system to grow as fast as you
want. There will also be a B012 board which will have 16 slots and
will cost $1750. These modules are also going to be used by boards
developed by companies such as Tadpole Technologies, just think of the
possibilities! In my opinion the only disadvantage is the software
environment, however Inmos claims that this is improving and that a
true product release of the TDS and Occam, along with a complete
symbolic debugger(for debugging the network not just a single program
on a single transputer!) will be coming out first quarter of next
year. Actually, I will be getting some more information on these products
in the mail if there is any interest.
Computer Systems Architects has a T800 board, the links run with
differential drivers so distance is not a problem (unlike with Inmos'
and microway's). The equivalent board is $2370(5 wait state RAM). The
TDS (with occam) is $1500, however in late December they will have a C
compiler which has a network loader and runs under MS-DOS for $400 (NO
TDS! :-). The C compiler is being written by Logical Systems. The
novel features provided in the occam language are implemented in this
version of C by means of library calls. This make the code very
portable.
Micropar distributes a transputer board with slots for up to 4 transputers.
No differential drivers on the links. They have a C compiler which
provides extentions to the C language to implement the features provided by
Occam. This makes their version of C not very portable but fairly easy to
use. It runs under MS-DOS. Their T-800 board will not be out until around
February and they won't give out any prices yet. The C compiler is $495.
Their fully populated (4 transputers, 4MB RAM) T-414 version is $4490,
compared to Microway's quad-transputer (T414 w/4MB RAM) board which is
$6000, so it might be worth the wait for the T800 version.
Hope this helps.
Dorothy DeLuca
ddd@thumper.bellcore.com
ihnp4!bellcore!thumper!ddd
(201) 829-4527jg@otter.HP.COM (Jim Galloway) (12/14/87)
Hi
The only info I have is the Inmos compiler is available
in a Beta release version at #750, this price includes upgrades. From
speaking to Inmos they are not too impressed by the compiler. It is
unreliable, and generates very inefficient code. The Pascal compiler
is reported as being far superior to the C one.
Cheers
Jim Gallowaycsnjr@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) (12/18/87)
In article <580001@otter.HP.COM> writes: >>Hi > The only info I have is the Inmos compiler is available >in a Beta release version at #750, this price includes upgrades. From >speaking to Inmos they are not too impressed by the compiler. I wouldn't listen too closely to what Inmos say about compilers. They're chief complaint, I gather, is that the C compiler doesn't go as fast as OCCAM. Pretty self-evident, since the t/puter is an OCCAM engine. I also heard (but *don't quote me*, please) that Inmos received a beta version of the C compiler, for internal testing, and, since Inmos don't much care about languages other than OCCAM (i.e. about "alien" languages), they just shrugged their shoulders and put it on the market. Disclaimer: These are opinions based on second-hand accounts. *I* believe every word, but make up your own minds... -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ "Nothing's forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten." - Herne