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From: hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Atari/Perihelion Transputer Machine Spec
Message-ID: <1201@omepd>
Date: Thu, 5-Nov-87 02:16:53 EST
Article-I.D.: omepd.1201
Posted: Thu Nov 5 02:16:53 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Nov-87 17:33:07 EST
References: <1034@titan.camcon.uucp>
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Organization: Intel Oregon Microcomputer Engineering
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Xref: mnetor comp.sys.transputer:21 comp.sys.atari.st:6121
In article <1034@titan.camcon.uucp> anc@camcon.uucp (Adrian Cockcroft) writes:
This is my second attempt at posting this, the first attempt was just before
it got a bit windy around here a few weeks ago, I have not seen any comment
on that attempt so I assume it got lost in the hurricane. I have since seen
at least one request for info on this machine in comp.sys.transputer so I
am posting across amiga (where some dicussion has taken place) atari.st
(since this is mentioned below) and transputer newsgroups.
| Adrian Cockcroft anc@camcon.uucp ..!seismo!mcvax!ukc!camcon!anc
-[T]- Cambridge Consultants Ltd, Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4DW,
| England, UK (0223) 358855
(You are in a maze of twisty little C004's, all alike...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A presentation was given by Atari and Perihelion at the Cafe Royal in
London on 22/9/87, over 100 software developers, hardware manufacturers and
press people attended and no restrictions were made on the information
presented at the meeting. I attended and this a quick summary of the notes
I took at the meeting.
First a benchmark reported by Inmos: Multivariate regression analysis
IBM PC 45 minutes
T800 18 seconds
T800 x 4 7 seconds
Inmos also had a T800 powered multiuser flight simulator that kept 4 people
at a time happy shooting each other down. 4 T800's per user plus a T4 graphics
card and a load of T2's handling the joysticks. All in an ITEM box together.
The graphics animation was VERY smooth, far better than a SUN3/260C+fpa+gpone
flight simulator I have played with.
Atari and Perihelion have got together so that Perihelion are designing the
hardware and the software for a high performance workstation to be
manufactured and sold by Atari.
Perihelion Hardware
-------------------
Perihelion is headed by Jack Lang in Cambridge, England. The hardware division
includes Richard Miller, Tim Dunn and ? Biscoe.
Stage 1 Hardware is a Mega ST add-on system intended for software developers.
Stage 2 Hardware is a compatible single box workstation.
The Mega ST is a front end I/O processor only. The block diagram looks like:
--------- -------------
|blitter| | 4 Mb DRAM |
----------- --------------- --------- --------- -------------
| Mega ST | | Interface | |T800-20| | |
| kbd I/O |---| Link Adaptor|----| |---------------------
| mouse | | SCSI disk | | | | |
| floppy | --------------- --------- ----------- ----------
----------- | | | | |1 Mb VRAM| |Graphics|
4Mb/s|SCSI | | | ----------- ----------
---------- 3 ECL buffered
| 40 Mb | 20 MHz links
| Winch |
----------
The box takes up to 16 Mb on the motherboard (using 4Mbit DRAMS) and has
three expansion slots which can take either 4Mb (1Mbit) or 16Mb (4Mbit)
of DRAM each for a total in the box of 64 Mb. The expansion slots use
a single DIN plug (VME-type) and the 3 ECL buffered links go onto them so
that a slot can contain a board with more transputers on it. Size is enough
for four T800s + 1 Mb each per card. Graphics cards can also be used to
replace the built-in hardware.
The Blitter 2D fills at 128 Mpixels/sec, 2D block copy at 16 Mpixels/sec.
(It has a novel architecture based on work by Phil Willis at Bath University).
Graphics modes:
1280 * 960 * 4 bpp
1024 * 768 * 8 bpp
640 * 480 * 8 bpp 2 screens for animation
512 * 480 * 32 bpp true colour + overlay and tag bits
60 Hz, not sure about interlace, has some genlock capability.
Probably uses Inmos G170 CLUT giving 256K colour shades.
SCSI disk uses true DMA synchronous SCSI interface to get 4Mbytes/s, 40Mb is
minimum size.
A photo of a completed motherboard in box was shown, smaller than an IBM
PC box with 3 fair sized slots.
Perihelion Software
-------------------
This is based in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England and is headed by Tim King
ex of Metacomco, Amigados fame.
Operating system called Helios written in C to support single processor
workstations, 4 processor workstations, 1000 processor farms or anything
inbetween.
Helios is distributed, multiprocessor, multiuser, sympathetic to the
Transputer and familiar to Unix users. Tim King has listened to the criticism
of Amigados and has avoided a lot of the complaints about that system.
It is based on message passing with transparent passing across processors,
it uses a client/server model, has per-processor protection and capability
based access.
Networking and diskless workstations will be supported via the 3 ECL buffered
links with no extra hardware.
Applications can be written in 3 modes, the traditional single threaded program,
unix-like multiple processes
at a coarse grain level or parallel algorithms using a medium grain level.
Existing TOS/GEM applications can run on the Mega ST front end processor.
User Interface
--------------
X-11 window system standard.
GEM - translating GEM traps on the 68K i/o proc to the T800.
GEM running under X-11 may be provided.
Standard unix like shell command line interface.
Compatibility
-------------
MSDOS floppy disk format
UNIX(TM) hard disk format
UNIX(TM) compatible C library
UNIX(TM) command subset
Languages
---------
C Pascal Lisp
Fortran BCPL Occam
Development Tools
-----------------
Hosted on ST or Unix(TM) or MSDOS or native
Asm/link
C
Debugger
Atari's Position
----------------
They are looking for wider markets and want to go upmarket into workstation
technology. The hardware design will be Atari's property but Helios is already
spreading wider, another 4 companies are likely to use it so far.
It will be launched at COMDEX as a Mega ST add-on for developers.
Development systems available in Dec 87/Jan 88.
The standalone system will be launched at Hannover in March 88.
Product in the shops in June 88 in the UK.
Product in Europe 6 months later and US launch June 89, giving a years
head start to the UK software developers and a chance for the machine to
gather some applications software before it hits the US.
Cost
----
Priced well below Mac II, base level entry price (no winchester or monitor) aimed
at 1000 pounds according to Jack Lang.
For now they will provide a set of 3 manuals, User Manual, Developers Manual
and Technical Manual for 50 pounds, you then become a registered
developer and get a priority place in the queue for developers hardware
in December.
Apply for more information to: Perihelion Software Limited
24 Brewmaster Buildings
Charlton Trading Estate
Shepton Mallet
Somerset BA4 5QE
Phone: 0749 4203
--
| Adrian Cockcroft anc@camcon.uucp ..!seismo!mcvax!ukc!camcon!anc
-[T]- Cambridge Consultants Ltd, Science Park, Cambridge CB4 4DW,
| England, UK (0223) 358855
(You are in a maze of twisty little C004's, all ald theri