Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!nikhefh!gert From: gert@nikhefh.UUCP (Gert Poletiek) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.misc,comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Atari Transputers ? & A British ST/Amiga Rival ? Message-ID: <396@nikhefh.UUCP> Date: Sun, 4-Oct-87 07:49:18 EDT Article-I.D.: nikhefh.396 Posted: Sun Oct 4 07:49:18 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 7-Oct-87 05:33:11 EDT References: <8709181728.AA13664@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <1623@gryphon.CTS.COM> <607@sbcs.UUCP> <1138@water.waterloo.edu> Reply-To: gert@nikhefh.UUCP (Gert Poletiek) Distribution: world Organization: Nikhef-H, Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Lines: 81 Xref: mnetor comp.sys.atari.st:5458 comp.sys.misc:886 comp.sys.amiga:9075 In article <1138@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes: >In article <607@sbcs.UUCP> root@sbcs.UUCP (Root) writes: >>> > One article I have seen quotes the performance of the slower T414 >>> > processor (20 mhz) as 10 MIPS ! >> >> RISC mips, unfortunately. > >You seem to imply that RISC mips are not quite as good as some other kind >of MIPS. Are RISC mips slower somehow? Are more instructions needed to >produce the same results? Explain, please. > >-- > L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo. > ljdickey@watmath.UUCP UUCP: ...!uunet!watmath!ljdickey > ljdickey%water@waterloo.edu ljdickey@watdcs.BITNET > ljdickey%water%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA I do not dare to compare ALL Risc type processors to the 68*** family of processors. I can however comment a bit on the T-series from Inmos. Inmos has three general purpose transputers and a couple of dedicated transputers. These are: the T212 the T414 and the T800 (the latter is available in test quantities only right now). The T212 is a 16 bit transputer with a 16 bit data AND address bus, thus being capable of addressing at most 64 KiloByte. The T414 is a 32 bit transputer with 32 data and address bus. The 800 is also a 32 bit transputer but in addition it has a on chip 64 bit IEEE floating point unit. The T414 is comparable to the 68000 or 68010, and the T800 is comparable to the set 68020/68881. All transputers have a memory interface, 2 KiloByte onchip memory (4Kb for the T800) and 4 serial interfaces. The serial interfaces are electrically asynchronous serial links on which a synchonous protocol is implemented in the micro code level. The serial links run at 20 MegaBits per second. The T800 is clocked at 20 MHz (and planned for next year? at 30 Mhz). The floating point unit operates at a speed of 1.5 MegaFlops. The main processor operates at a speed of 10 MIPS. Using the serial links (just two wires) it is very easy to built a network of transputers (well, a multi processor system). Data transfer primitives are implemented for them, also in micro code. The transputers are multi tasking processors. Multitasking is also supported by the hardware/micro code, resulting in a context switch that takes no more than 2 to 4 MicroSeconds. For processes running concurrently on the same processor the same data transfer primitives as those used for the serial links can be used. The transputers do not have on chip registers as the 68*** processors have. In stead they have a so called evaluation stack that works very similar to the register stack in a Hewlett Packard calculator. The instructions of the transputers are all the same length, making decoding easier and faster. Also there are a lot less instructions than in the 68***. This makes that possibly more instructions are needed on a transputer than on a 68***. The following table is published in several Inmos publications on the transputer performance (note that this is not a MIPS/Flops rating, but a more or less 'real-life' rating): processor clock Whetstones/second Intel 80286/80287 8 MHz 300 000 Inmos T414 20 Mhz 663 000 NS 32332/32081 15 Mhz 728 000 MC 68020/68881 16/12 Mhz 755 000 Fairchild Clipper 33 Mhz 2220 000 Inmos T800 20 Mhz 4000 000 Inmos T800 30 Mhz 6000 000 Hope this info helps a bit, Gert Poletiek NIKHEF-H, Dutch National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics Kruislaan 409, P.O.Box 41882, 1009 DB Amsterdam, The Netherlands UUCP: {decvax,cernvax,unido,seismo}!mcvax!nikhefh!gert bitnet: nikhefh!gert@mcvax.bitnet, U00025@hasara5.bitnet