Received: from watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (watserv1.waterloo.edu) by karazm.math.UH.EDU with SMTP id AA26668 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Wed, 23 Oct 1991 14:35:29 -0500 Received: by watserv1.uwaterloo.ca id ; Wed, 23 Oct 91 15:31:19 -0400 Date: Wed, 23 Oct 91 15:31:19 -0400 From: Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng Message-Id: <9110231931.AA19069@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 Wed Oct 23 13:50:33 1991 > From: newton@neworder.ils.nwu.edu (Dave Newton) > Subject: Re: Transputers... > To: glove-list@karazm.math.uh.edu > > In a previous message, dirish@math.utah.edu said: > > (Just an aside, there really isn't an assembly language for the transputer. > > That strikes me as odd, since the $396 T400 board I mentioned comes with > C, Occam, and assembly. > > > However, I haven't given up on the transputer. If you have addresses > > for companies which are selling PC transputer cards I would love it if > > you sent them to me. > > > The only question is whether 100Mbps interconnect is fast enough. > > Um, I would certainly hope so. That two-page article about the VPL thing > was using straight ethernet for their interconnects. If 100M isn't fast > enough, there's a serious software problem, I'd have to say. > Actually, VPL is just sending world database updates by Ethernet, which is OK. But we're talking about sending rendered pixels to the video board, which, for a 500x500x24 bit picture, needs 6 Mbits/sec times the frame rate! Can the video board handle this data rate??? If ypu use 4 transputers, can they SEND this rate??? For our purposes, I think the world database could reside on one transputer, which does preliminary clipping and sends polygon and attribute lists to the other transputers. IF the video board can handle the input speed, this idea will work. But not if you have to design a custom video buffer... Or, how about using 4 video boards, genlocking them, and switching between them as their video segments occur??? Will I run out of "?????"'s??? - Dave Stampe