[HN Gopher] Implementing a Transputer system using RasPi Pico an...
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       Implementing a Transputer system using RasPi Pico and RAM expansion
        
       Author : lproven
       Score  : 55 points
       Date   : 2022-04-24 21:42 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (trochilidae.blogspot.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (trochilidae.blogspot.com)
        
       | alexisread wrote:
       | I've always thought it a shame that the Atari ST missed a few
       | tricks as a result of being developed at such a breakneck pace.
       | In this instance it's not including the blitter socket as
       | standard on all STs, and then using the socket instead to host a
       | 16mhz T212 transputer in 1987 as a coprocessor.
       | 
       | Atari released the ATW in 1987, but it was a flop. I think the
       | main reason was unfamiliarity- a parallel cpu architecture
       | running unix-like OS but with no mmu, and no grandstand
       | applications sunk it.
       | 
       | Had the transputer launched as a coprocessor (even the T212 was
       | 10x faster than the 68k fpu) it would have allowed developers to
       | get familiar with OCCAM etc. Alongside a more traditional arch
       | before launching a 32bit machine with the full TRAM style
       | modules.
       | 
       | Interestingly, this might well have changed the computing
       | landscape, using transputers as Xeon Phi style GPUs before GPUs
       | were a thing.
       | 
       | It would have also led to an interesting situation when Motorola
       | ended the 68k line. Rather than going to power PC as the Mac and
       | Amiga did, the ST/TT could have gone full transputer instead.
       | 
       | Lastly, the transputers are quite small (20k gates) and power
       | efficient. ARM might not have had the same legacy with a
       | competitive transputer scene as a result of using it in volume as
       | a coprocessor.
       | 
       | This is a great project, with lots of enthusiastic people in the
       | comments section, very pleased to see a revival of the concepts!
        
         | __d wrote:
         | The T800 was a competitive CPU, more-or-less, although it was
         | always odd when compared to the mainstream processors of the
         | day. The fact that it didn't easily support C, Pascal, or even
         | BASIC (in the early stages) meant that it was slow to get
         | support for familiar applications.
         | 
         | OCCAM was lovely, in an academic sense, but it was effectively
         | a different evolutionary branch of computing. That branch has
         | perhaps more influence today than ever, with Go's use of CSP-
         | like channels, but OCCAM never really took off.
         | 
         | Inmos sold TDS (the IDE/SDK) for a lot of money just when Open
         | Source was really starting to kick off. The folding editor,
         | while it had its good points, was also strange from a
         | mainstream point of view, adding to the barrier to entry.
         | 
         | By the time you could get common languages able to compile for
         | the Transputer, the T425/T800 were outpaced by the rest of the
         | industry, and the T9000 only really approached being available
         | as Inmos collapsed. And by that time, it was already obsolete
         | anyway.
         | 
         | But XMOS has done fairly well, albeit in a limited niche.
        
         | foobiekr wrote:
         | The problem was that after the t-800 things went to hell.
        
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