[comp.sys.transputer] --- Any experiences of the T800 plug-in board for the PC/AT?

jarmo@tut.fi (#Jarmo Sorvari) (10/27/87)

I am new to this group, so I'm sorry if I ask things that already have been
asked.

We are planning to use a transputer board that can be plugged into a
PC/AT-E (DIT Module Motherboard B008) with the T800 transputer DIL
module (B403).

The application will be real-time control of an industrial robot.  We
need a fast co-processor for number crunching.  The control interval
should be very short.  It would seem that both the 80286 of the PC/AT
(doing mainly I/O with the robot and the T800) and the T800 could work
simultaneously and thus we could have a powerful system.

At least at the beginning we will need only one transputer.

We wish to have a system that is easy to program (preferably C) and
debug, and that has enough memory (at least 1 Mb) on board.

Does anyone have experiences with similar applications (real-time
control of mechanisms)?  We would appreciate hearing about experiences
(positive or negative) with the combination B008 + B403/T800!  Does
anyone have better suggestions to replace the transputer board?

We heard that the C-compiler that INMOS sells is buggy.  True or not?
Any better replacements?  If we buy a third-party C-compiler, would we
still need the TDS (transputer development system) from INMOS or are
there third party TDS's as well?