🚀 go-pugleaf

Note: I have X-posted this because it is interesting
to more that just Atari types.

Followups to the appropriate places folks! So please edit the newsgroups line!

In article <8709181728.AA13664@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> KEITH@SYSD.SALFORD.AC.UK writes:
>I have not seen any mention of Atari in connection with Transputers
>recently on the digests or in the U.S. magazines so I thought you might
>be interested in this...
>
>Most of the British computer press have printed news articles over the
>past few weeks about certain Atari contracts. Apparently, Atari have
>reached an agreement of some sort with a U.K. company Perihelion to
>develop a Transputer based prototype !
>
>Very few actual details have appeared and some of these appear to
>contracdict each other. Those aspects of the machine that do seem
>firm are:
>
>Operating System:
>      HELIOS is being developed by Perihelion as the standard operating
>      system for Transputers (this is being aided by a recently awarded
>      government grant). The current plans are that HELIOS will look like
>      UNIX with a full X-Windows interface.
>
>      They are also reported as wanting to promote the use of C for
>      transputers instead of Occam to ease porting of applicaions.
>
>Processor:
>      Almost certainly the T800 (20 mhz), very impressive even when used
>      as a single processor system. It is a 32 bit processor and includes
>      an on-chip floating point unit.
>
>      One article I have seen quotes the performance of the slower T414
>      processor (20 mhz) as 10 MIPS !
>
>What is not clear is the form that this new machine will take. Perihelion
>chairman, Jack Lang is reported to have said that the new machine will
>have  "its own bit-blitter and lightning graphics of at least 1024x768
>resolution". The same article credits Lang with three stages of the
>product:
>
>      1. As an ST add-on. In some way this is supposed to allow existing
>      software to run unaltered and about five times faster !?
>
>      2. An all new machine with an ST inside the transputers box.
>      This requires software to be ported over (why?) though this is
>      supposed to be simple for GEM based (C?) programs. The article
>      claimed that this would result in a faster, more connectable and
>      expandable box than anything produced by DEC.
>
>      Lang (and everybody else ?) hopes to bring this in for under
>      1000 pounds ($1600).
>
>A British ST/Amiga Rival ??
>---------------------------
>
>I thought that news of a British micro that is due for official
>launch at the PCW Show in London this month would be of interest
>to ST users.

And others...

>Acorn, a company that were not exactly a raging success when they
>tried to launch their BBC Micro range of computers in the U.S., have
>released a machine that they claim is the worlds fastest micro !
>
>The Archimedes (I know, silly name) range of micros is based on
>Acorns own RISC architecture processor (the ARM). This is a 32
>bit chip with 27 general purpose 32 bit registers. In its current
>form it runs at between 4 and 8 MIPS though this is really limited
>by the speed of the memory (Acorn have clocked ARMs up to 18 MIPS).

I hope they wern't doing NOP's :-)

>There are over 20 graphics modes ranging from 25 by 40 text up to
>640 by 512 (and 1280 by 978 on the A400 series) in up to 256
>simultaneous colours (i.e. 8bits/colour) from a pallette of 4096.
>There is no blitter chip, but you don't miss it - the processor is so
>fast that a blitter really isn't needed.

The advantage of having a seperate blitter is that you can have the
blitter and CPU operating simultaneously.

> Software Sprites of any size
>and colour (depending on mode) are provided.
>
>Sound is similar to the AMIGAs, using wave form tables. There are
>8 sound channels each with a stereo position from 1 (left) thru
>128 (centre) to 255 (right). Speech is possible but not part of the
>bundled sotware.
>
>The machine is incredible ! I haved played with one for a few minutes
>and should be able to get access to one on loan within the next few
>months. It is difficult to describe how fast this machine is but two
>items do illustrate the fact:
>
>      - The desktop environment shipped with early machines is
>        provided on disk and is written in interpreted BASIC !
>        This will be changed for the final release versions but
>        even now this is the fastest windowing envronment I have
>        seen; everything happens instantaneously, windows simply
>        appear !
>
>      - A demontration version of a game, still in development, is
>        supplied with the machine. You guide a "lander" type craft
>        over a detailed surface made up of cubic patches. You can fly
>        the lander in ANY direction, towards and away from the screen,
>        over the valleys and lakes of the planet. All the particles,
>        splashes in the water, the rocket motors all behave
>        ballistically. It may turn out to be a terrible game but it
>        is an incredible demonstration of processing power.
>
>The Operating system offers a form of multi-tasking and there is a
>true multi-tasking, unix like operating system under development for
>the A400 series. A 6502 emulation that can run "legal" BBC Micro
>programs is supplied with the machine and a software emulation of
>the 8088 running MS-DOS should also be available - both of these
>emulations are supposedly faster than the machines they mimic !
>
>Up to 2 or 4 slots are supported in-machine and these will be able
>to take a variety of cards. One of the first cards is a co-processor
>unit with a 10MHz 80186 running MS-DOS. Others for the A400 series
>will include a floating point unit (normally emulated in software so
>no change in code is required) and even additional, faster, ARMs
>working in parrallel !
>
>One of the main problems I can see at present is that memory is
>currently limited to 4 MB by the memory management unit even though
>the processor can address at least 32 MBs. Also, the machine could do
>with a decent set of bundled software instead of the demos currently
>planned.
>
>Prices for the A300 series are close to those of the Atari MEGA ST2 and
>the A400 series is around the price of an AMIGA A2000.
>
>Who knows whether Acorn will risk the U.S. market again but this
>machine might push Atari into proceeding with the Transputer project !
>
>Keith Wolstenholme
>JANET: UK.AC.SALFORD.R-D

I wish Acorn a lot of luck. This sounds like a King-Hell machine.

Although I wonder how fast this thing really is compared to a 25Mhz
68020. And hey, if there are 25 Mhz 68020's is it possible to get
faster ones as grade outs ?

'Bridge' was selling 12 Mhz Z-80 cards for UNIBUS using grade out
8Mhz Z-80's. just how fast can you push a 68020 anyway ?

-----------------------

I have some serious doubts about the wisdom of posting to both ST and
Amiga groups, but I thought perhaps this was sufficiantly interesting.

So lets try to be nice this time, huh ?
-- 
Richard J. Sexton
INTERNET:     richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
UUCP:         {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard

"It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition..."