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- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!news!nic.cerf.net!jcbhrb
- From: jcbhrb@nic.cerf.net (Jacob Hirbawi)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
- Subject: RE: REQ: T9000 Status
- Message-ID: <3999@news.cerf.net>
- Date: 11 Dec 92 23:46:12 GMT
- Sender: news@news.cerf.net
- Organization: CERFnet
- Lines: 55
- Nntp-Posting-Host: nic.cerf.net
-
- In comp.sys.transputer <94900@rphroy.ph.gmr.com>
- Walt Stuart <wjs@re3sc139h.gmr.com> writes:
-
- > Are there any OEMs listening out there who have received or begun
- > development of board products using T9000 ? It's been a while
- > since I've heard a reliable status of the chip. Does it have
- > the virtual channel capability yet ? What about the packet routing
- > chip availability ?
-
- I'm not sure that I would consider myself an OEM; but I have just finished
- talking to representatives from Inmos, Parsytec, and Transatec about the
- T9000 (and other things) and I can perhaps summarize the impressions I got:
-
- (1) A fully functional T9000 including the virtual channel capability
- will be ready around March 1993. This will not be a 50-Mhz part, but
- will run somewhere around 25-40 MHz. The link speed should still be
- 100 Mbits/sec (this part doesn't make too much sense to me but that's
- what I was told!). The price should be around $600.
-
- (2) The 50 MHz T9000 should be out around September 1993. The price should
- be around $900.
-
- (3) The C104 (32x32 multiplexer -- the T9000 equivalent of the C004) won't be
- out until June 1993. In the meantime there is an 8x8 implementation as an
- ASIC (C103) -- this is either available now or soon; I did not pay too
- much attention since I doubt that I will use it.
-
- (4) The C100 (T9000 link adapter) should also be available early in 1993.
-
- (5) The software to develop T9000 code will be first available for SUN
- platforms. The IBM-PC/DOS version (the one I'm interested in) should
- be out three weeks after the introduction of the T9000 -- i.e. around
- April 1993. Unlike the older D705 and D7205 this will (also?) run on the
- host processor (486 for example). Of course you will still need a link
- adapter card on your PC bus to download the code to the target
- transputers. A 50 MHz 486 should compile and link OCCAM code a bit
- faster than a T800.
-
- (6) Parsytec expects to have deliverable T9000 products by June 1993 --
- the specific item I asked about was a T9000 on a VME bus. Judging
- by the delivery dates above it doesn't look like anyone will have
- any products before this date and even then it will be with the slow
- T9000.
-
- This information is somewhat discouraging and I would be more than glad to
- find out that things are not so gloomy. Along with the other Transputer
- faithfuls I will probably end up waiting for the T9000 until *whenever* it
- comes out; but for now I am forced to use another processor for a contract
- that must be completed by August 1993. I will be getting a number of
- Transatec's i860-T800 modules ($7500 a pop for an 860 with 16 MByte DRAM,
- and a T800 with 4 MByte DRAM). This is definitely not my first choice but
- it's the only product that can do the job *now*.
-
- Jacob Hirbawi
- JcbHrb@CERF.net
-