5 ms·

Transputer

46 points by walkingolof 9y ago

curtis 9y ago
I learned about the Transputer from Byte Magazine, probably by reading one of Dick Pountain's articles. I thought it was interesting enough that I wrote Inmos to see if I could get some free documentation. I think I must have filled out a standard form, because I remember that they wanted to know what kind of professional role I had. I just wrote "student" and they sent me a bunch of stuff anyway, but the paperwork that came back said I was a "consultant", which I found rather amusing. Alas, Transputers were on the way out at that point (probably they were never on the way in), so I never got to actually work with one. They still seem pretty cool, but in a decidedly retro way now.
- walkingolof 9y ago
  Personally, I was drooling over the Atari ATW, it was more or less a Atari Mega ST with a transputer daughter board and the (at the time) awesome graphic chip "Blossom". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Transputer_Workstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Transputer_Workstation
- sitkack 9y ago
  Funny. I did the same thing, in high school I wrote to ST Microelectronics who had purchased Inmos about transputer documentation. They sent me a small refrigerator sized box of manuals. The onboard scheduler and instruction set format was amazing.
  - earenndil 9y ago
    How long ago was this? Do you suppose they would still have such things if I asked them now?
    - sitkack 9y ago
      I doubt it, but you could try. Nearly all of them are available on https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22transputer%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22transputer... and http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/inmos/transputer/ http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/inmos/transputer/
bpye 9y ago
I have attended lectures by David May and he spoke a couple of times about the Transputer. He has some resources on his current web page. https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~dave/ https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~dave/
swolchok 9y ago
If you're interested in this, http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/ http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/ is a "game" about programming a non-existent architecture that looks inspired by transputers.
- krallja 9y ago
  TIS-100 has been on my brain for over 2 years now. Almost as addicting as Kerbal Space Program.
curtis 9y ago
After re-reading the history of the Transputer, I wonder if instead of going all in on the T9000, maybe Inmos should have been simply trying to cram multiple T800 cores onto a single chip. I guess it likely wouldn't have made much difference.
linker3000 9y ago
Our visual systems (flight simulators) lab had a small card cage from Meiko. It held a number of Transputer boards and was used for graphics/rendering algorithm development. I remember a flurry of activity to learn Occam, but interest waned as Transputer development fizzled out. I was an apprentice at the time and didn't get to play with the Meiko box. Other dev work was done on PCs, a VAX 11/750 and a MicroVAX - and I got to play with all those!
protomyth 9y ago
I so wanted to program one, but never got my hands on the Atari or the PC card with the T-400 on it. I bought the Occam book (which is I still have), and found it to be a very interesting language (I always got the impressions on hooking Legos together). I will say that it did influence my thinking on how to design programs.
jensgk 9y ago
As a student (around 1990) at DTU (Denmark) a friend and I did a project on trying different methods of mapping backpropagation neural network algorithms/architectures to a computer with 16 T-800's using the Occam language with its (in)famous folding editor. Those were the days :-)
UncleSlacky 9y ago
I took a course in Occam at university, though we weren't allowed to program the Transputers themselves. Occam had the nice property of being able to produce code that could be proven mathematically correct. We were allowed to see the output from a Meiko Computing Surface (with something like 64 Transputers) generating fractal zooms in real time (circa 1990). Several years later I discovered a Transputer (in its storage case) abandoned in the drawer of the desk I was assigned in my first "real" job, so I kept it as a souvenir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiko_Scientific https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiko_Scientific
sitkack 9y ago
The transputer still lives in on Xmos (started by David May), http://www.xmos.com/products/silicon/xcore-200 http://www.xmos.com/products/silicon/xcore-200

46 points by walkingolof 9y ago

I learned about the Transputer from Byte Magazine, probably by reading one of Dick Pountain's articles. I thought it was interesting enough that I wrote Inmos to see if I could get some free documentation. I think I must have filled out a standard form, because I remember that they wanted to know what kind of professional role I had. I just wrote "student" and they sent me a bunch of stuff anyway, but the paperwork that came back said I was a "consultant", which I found rather amusing. Alas, Transputers were on the way out at that point (probably they were never on the way in), so I never got to actually work with one. They still seem pretty cool, but in a decidedly retro way now.

walkingolof 9y ago
Personally, I was drooling over the Atari ATW, it was more or less a Atari Mega ST with a transputer daughter board and the (at the time) awesome graphic chip "Blossom". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Transputer_Workstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Transputer_Workstation
sitkack 9y ago
Funny. I did the same thing, in high school I wrote to ST Microelectronics who had purchased Inmos about transputer documentation. They sent me a small refrigerator sized box of manuals. The onboard scheduler and instruction set format was amazing.
- earenndil 9y ago
  How long ago was this? Do you suppose they would still have such things if I asked them now?
  - sitkack 9y ago
    I doubt it, but you could try. Nearly all of them are available on https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22transputer%22 https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22transputer... and http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/inmos/transputer/ http://www.textfiles.com/bitsavers/pdf/inmos/transputer/

bpye 9y ago

I have attended lectures by David May and he spoke a couple of times about the Transputer. He has some resources on his current web page. https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~dave/ https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~dave/

swolchok 9y ago

If you're interested in this, http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/ http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/ is a "game" about programming a non-existent architecture that looks inspired by transputers.

krallja 9y ago
TIS-100 has been on my brain for over 2 years now. Almost as addicting as Kerbal Space Program.

curtis 9y ago

After re-reading the history of the Transputer, I wonder if instead of going all in on the T9000, maybe Inmos should have been simply trying to cram multiple T800 cores onto a single chip. I guess it likely wouldn't have made much difference.

linker3000 9y ago

Our visual systems (flight simulators) lab had a small card cage from Meiko. It held a number of Transputer boards and was used for graphics/rendering algorithm development. I remember a flurry of activity to learn Occam, but interest waned as Transputer development fizzled out. I was an apprentice at the time and didn't get to play with the Meiko box. Other dev work was done on PCs, a VAX 11/750 and a MicroVAX - and I got to play with all those!

protomyth 9y ago

I so wanted to program one, but never got my hands on the Atari or the PC card with the T-400 on it. I bought the Occam book (which is I still have), and found it to be a very interesting language (I always got the impressions on hooking Legos together). I will say that it did influence my thinking on how to design programs.

jensgk 9y ago

As a student (around 1990) at DTU (Denmark) a friend and I did a project on trying different methods of mapping backpropagation neural network algorithms/architectures to a computer with 16 T-800's using the Occam language with its (in)famous folding editor. Those were the days :-)

UncleSlacky 9y ago

I took a course in Occam at university, though we weren't allowed to program the Transputers themselves. Occam had the nice property of being able to produce code that could be proven mathematically correct. We were allowed to see the output from a Meiko Computing Surface (with something like 64 Transputers) generating fractal zooms in real time (circa 1990). Several years later I discovered a Transputer (in its storage case) abandoned in the drawer of the desk I was assigned in my first "real" job, so I kept it as a souvenir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiko_Scientific https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiko_Scientific

sitkack 9y ago

The transputer still lives in on Xmos (started by David May), http://www.xmos.com/products/silicon/xcore-200 http://www.xmos.com/products/silicon/xcore-200