Large inventory of transputer parts for sale!!!

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Thu Jul 22 10:16:30 1999

> I can't speak for everybody but I think this discussion is interesting (and
> on topic). The design is novel and the allure is certainly high too. Maybe
> nobody else on the list has the fantasy of getting a really super-speedy
> computer system (with well-documented software) but I do, and the Transputer
> series sounds pretty close to that ideal.

Well, I have fantasies as well, but so far all of the _reasonable_ supers
and minisupers are out of my reach.

Also, keep in mind that there is more to life than Transputers.
Specifically, a certain MasPar out West - maybe gone now. The 1989-95
timeframe was the "golden age" for MPP systems, with a bunch of vendors
and a slew of architectures - if you can grab one, DO IT! Spares and
documentation tends to be a problem, but at least with MPP systems, most
of the boards are the same in each computer, so if one breaks, you still
have others to compare to.

> Now if only the boards that keep popping up for sale were in the US! I get
> the impression they're all in England.

One of the reasons is that Transputers were more or less abandoned in the
States as other architectures popped up. The Inmos chips were a good
first start, and certainly deserve a place in the "Chip Hall of Fame",
but they were also designed when MPP systems were still very immature. As
the computer engineers figured out out to get multiple processors to talk
in an efficient manner, learning from mistakes of the past (or sometimes
trial and error!), better systems were developed and the Transputers
retired.

No. I am not slamming Transputers...

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Thu Jul 22 1999 - 10:16:30 BST