eike@gmdzi.UUCP (Eike Best) (08/30/89)
Whatever happened to the Atari Transputer Workstation? Would anybody who visited the Duesseldorf Fair be so kind as to report his or her impressions about the ATW? Thanks in advance. Eike Best (eike@gmdzi.uucp or eike@infhil.uucp)
mboen@nixpbe.UUCP (Martin Boening) (08/31/89)
ATW News from the fair (this is not my impression - I can't afford to buy
an ATW):
Quoting from the Duesseldorf fair exhibitors catalogue:
The Atari Transputer Workstation (ATW) running HELIOS
The ATW was first shown in it's new design at the CeBit '89 (Hannover).
Since then ATWs of this build are being produced in small numbers and
delivered to developers.
The ATW is the combination of the wellknown (UNIX concepts) with modern
technology (Transputer networks) and coming graphics standards (X Windows).
The ATW is caharcterized by its graphics capabilities and its modular
concept. The computing power can be increased continously by adding
Farmcards which carry additional processors. It is thus possible to find
the best combination of investment amount and power. The standardized
interfaces (Posix, Transputer-link, SCSI, EThernet, ...) allow the connection
of other manufacturers' products to the ATW.
The operating systzem for the ATW is HELIOS. HELIOS is almost completely
compatible to UNIX (TM) [footnote: UNIX is a registered Trademark of AT&T]
and was designed specially for multiprocessor-systems (Transputer networks).
Several Transputer workstations can be combined to one Multiuser-system.
The Hardware
The ATARI Transputer Workstation in the basic version consists of a mother-
board, an I/O board, a videoboard, a diagnostics board, a 3 1/2" disk drive
and a 40MB harddisk. The product is offered in a tower case.
Figure 1 [not included !] shows all components of the workstation in a block
diagram.
The motherboard holds a Transputer T800-20, 4 MB RAM, a color blitter
(blossom) and the video RAM.
The Transputer is a complete 32bit parallel computer. It sports 10MIPs
and 1.5 MFLOPs per chip. There are 4MB RAM which can be extended to up to
16MB. The Blitter (Blossom) executes fast graphics operations. It's hard-
ware was adapted to the requirements of the X-windows routines. The video
RAM is 1MB big and dual ported. A special address decoding supports several
video modes. The user can chose among 4 video modes:
Mode 0: 4 bit pixeldepth, 1280*960 pixels using 16 colors
Mode 1: 8 bit pixel depth, 1024*768 pixels using 256 out of a total of
16 million different colors
Mode 2: 8 bit pixeldepth, 640*480 pixels using 256 out of a total of
16 million different colors
Mode 3: 32 bit pixeldepth, 512*480 pixels in 16 million different colors
The video board holds the D/A converters for several video modes. In the
final production release the video board will be replaced by a new, highly
integrated chip (,Dylan').
The motherboard is coupled to the I/O board via one of the four transputer
links.
The I/O board consists of a reduced ATARI MEGA ST the hardware of which was
modified especially in view of it's I/O operations. A new DMA chip
(,Morpheus') manages two additional interfaces: the transputer link and SCSI.
The I/O board has 1 MB RAM. All MEGA ST interfaces, such as Midi, Centronics,
ACSI (DMA port), Floppy and RS232, are still available.
The DMA-Port (ACSI) supports the operation of (max. 7) Atari Harddisks and
laserprinters. For hooking up more mass storage devices there is an SCSI
interface (max. 8 harddisks supported).
The Extensions
The RAM can be extended by up to 12 MB using RAM extensions. An external
transceiver connects the ATW with Ethernet networks. The computing power
of the workstation is extended by so-called farmcards. A farmcard has
optionally 1..4 transputers on board, each with 1MB RAM. The transputers
are coupled by their links.
A configuration board can be used as a connecting field for transputer
links. This board supports a software-based configuration of the transputer
network.
The Software
The ATW is delivered with the operating system Helios and the graphics
interface X Windows. Graphics output is managed by X Windows V11. The
architecture of the transputer-hardware supports the processing of
concurrent parallel processes. An arbitrary number of transputer can be
connected via links. A single transputer can process an unlimited number
of processes quasi-parallel using time slice scheduling methods.
The software house Perihelion has implemented the operating system Helios
on the transputer. Using the Helios shell the user has access to almost
all commands of the UNIX(TM) C-shell. Applications programs access almost
Unix-compatible system functions by way of the library routines. The IEEE
(Posix) standard is met completely. An extension in the direction of Unix
System V, Version 3.1 and later, is intended.
Helios is a distributed (over several transputers) operating system. The
principal of message transfers, which is used, guarantees fault tolerance.
Communication of Helios with the outside world is done across the I/O board.
On that board, a server program is running under TOS, the Atari operating
system.
Available Software
DSL (Distributed Software Limited), a sales division of the developer
Perihelion (England), offers development packages (Compilers and tools).
Meanwhile there are authorized distributors in the Federal Republic of
Germany. They also offer several compilers for C, Pascal, Modula2, Fortran
or BASIC. There are also a TDS server and several libraries already.
At the presen time applications in the areas of 3-dimensional graphics
editors (CAD), realtime simulations and pattern recognition systems using
neural networks are being developed.
Later on the user will have access to the complete diversity of workstation
software: databases allowing multiuser access, production management (CIM),
graphical simulators for example for molecular models, electrical circuits,
...
End of Quote
Well, what do you say. From the above I glean that the ATW should be available
genarally soon. But at what price? Probably real high, compared with the
Atari motto of 'power without the price'. Anyhow, a really professional
machine, I think. The demos at the Atari fair were real nice, too.
So long
Martin
--
Email: in the USA -> ...!uunet!philabs!linus!nixbur!mboening.pad
outside USA -> {...!mcvax}!unido!nixpbe!mboening.pad
Paper Mail: Martin Boening, Nixdorf Computer AG, DS-CC22,
Pontanusstr. 55, 4790 Paderborn, W.-Germany