Received: from watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (watserv1.waterloo.edu) by karazm.math.UH.EDU with SMTP id AA23037 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Tue, 22 Oct 1991 21:57:26 -0500 Received: by watserv1.uwaterloo.ca id ; Tue, 22 Oct 91 22:53:13 -0400 Date: Tue, 22 Oct 91 22:53:13 -0400 From: Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng Message-Id: <9110230253.AA18321@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> To: glove-list@karazm.math.uh.edu, newton@neworder.ils.nwu.edu Subject: Re: Transputers... > From glove-list-request@karazm.math.UH.EDU Tue Oct 22 21:09:29 1991 > From: newton@neworder.ils.nwu.edu (Dave Newton) > Subject: Transputers... > To: glove-list@karazm.math.uh.edu > > Howdy... > > I'm trying to figure out why nobody on here has proposed using those $400 > T400 transputer cards hooked into a slave-PC to use for rendering... > > My idea was basically have a T400 card w/ 1Meg ($396) and perhaps a few > slave cards ($296?). Each transputer has 10Mips sustained, 20 Mips > peak. The C compiler will automagically take advantage of other processors > if the code is set up in a parallel fashion. > > Now, color me stupid, but wouldn't this be a cheap way to get a whole bunch > of power? The transputers could either be used in the main PC or put out > in a slave PC somewhere. I was planning on getting two dirt-cheap PC boards, > three transputer boards (one for the main CPU, one for each slave) and > communicate to the slave T400 boards using the on-board 20M data link... > Let the slave boards handle the image calculation and spit it out via > J. Random NTSC-board. > Yep.. that would give you power. But what has to be considered is cost for the power, and software development. I wouldn't take on the task myself, because I have little experience in programming the Transputer systems. You'd have to do at least the rendering stuff in assembly, too. Have you got cost quotes on the video cards? Do they double buffer? Eventually we'll have to get renderers on all sorts of platforms. The Amiga, Atari, IBM PC etc. are being considered first because they're the most common. The Amiga-IBM idea was suggested because of the dedicated hardware in the Amiga for graphics. If you can get some estimates on how fast the Transputer can do graphics, it might be worth discussing it. Possible problems: If the 20M(bit) transputer link is used to talk to the video buffer, how much overhead is there (i.e. do you have to send both address ans data, or is there a burst mode)? How many units can talk to the video board at once? etc. etc. I used to have access to the data on this stuff, but not currently. Hope you can fill me in again. - Dave Stampe