🚀 go-pugleaf

	Date: Thu, 11 Feb 88 09:53:08 PST
	From: joseph@joseph.ucsc.edu (Joseph Reger)
	To: transputer-request@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU
	Subject: C compilers, Network Loaders
	
	
	 I posted a question about C compilers here a few weeks
	 ago, and got zero number of replies. This surprises me a
	 bit, I would have thought that there are many people out
	 there trying to get a decent C compiler for their
	 Transputer system.
	
	  I have a rather large (physics) application in C, and
	  would hate to port it to OCCAM. I have a C compiler, but
	  it has no network loader, so I would have to import it's
	  output into TDS, which gives me the creeps. Is there
	  *any* network loader available that would let me bypass
	  TDS altogether?  The most simple one would do it, since I
	  download an identical code to all transputers in the
	  network ( i.e.  the problem is embarrasingly parallel). I
	  would put up with a working beta release version, if it
	  need be.
	
	  Can anyone help?        Joseph D. Reger
				  joseph@chromo.ucsc.edu.
				  reger@ucscd.bitnet
	
====
There are in fact several C compilers out there for Transputers.
Our group has had good luck with the Pentasoft (formerly Penguin)
C compiler.  Other compilers that come to mind come from Definicon,
and from Kirk Bailey, both of which are more oriented towards the
IBM PC-type environment.

As far as network loaders, they are trivial to write when you have a
Transputer ready to boot from link.  Consult the INMOS documentation
for the methods to boot a Transputer over a link.  Its easy!

In a paragraph, a Transputer that is ready to boot from link is capable of
doing three things: read a word of memory, write a word of memory, or
download upto 255 bytes and start executing them.  You don't need more than
that, really...

We (ie. the Trillium group) wrote some elaborate boot code for the T-Series
in order to get the operating system up.  We then send messages for process
creation, destruction, and inquiry.

Probably the biggest problem with writing a generic network loader is that
there is no generic hardware topology except for, say, an INMOS B004 board...

	Andy