Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!latlog.UUCP!IAN
From: IAN@latlog.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
Subject: Re: C Compilers
Message-ID: <160.8806102047@latlog.co.uk>
Date: 10 Jun 88 22:47:01 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 58

Re: Transputer C Compilers - How many do you know?

Given that I work for one of the manufacturers mentioned (3L
Ltd), I will try and avoid turning this into an advert; as Ken
Koontz pointed out, I would only tell you how great our product
is.  However, I feel I can give a certain amount of factual
information and clarify the differences/samenesses between some
of the compilers mentioned, which may be of general interest.

First, my own company, 3L Ltd, used to be part of a larger
company called Lattice Logic Ltd (now part of European Silicon
Structures).  This, Lattice Logic C and 3L C can be regarded as
the same for the purposes of this discussion.

We sell two C products: single-transputer C (currently V1.3) and
Parallel C (currently V2.0) which supports multiple transputers
directly.  Both are K&R compilers with a fair number of the UNIX
extensions now being enshrined in the ANSI standard; this is
particularly true of the library, which has had more of the ANSI
functions at each release.

Our compilers and tools all run on the transputer; the host just
runs a file server program for which the source is available.  We
have customers who have ported the standard MS-DOS kit we supply
to VAX, SUN, Apollo and Macintosh systems, for example.  Some of
these people are planning to release these ports as products.

Parallel C V2.0 has been shipping since March 1.  It allows you
to do multi-transputer and multi-threaded work without occam,
should you so wish. This involves additional run-time library
support for concurrency and message passing (the C language is
not interfered with) and some proprietary configuration tools.  A
single program creates a single TASK, which may contain
concurrent threads of execution and may talk to other tasks,
which may be on the same transputer or elsewhere.  The
configurers accept a language like this:

	processor jim
	task fred ins=3 outs=5 data=20k
	place fred jim

Inmos are currently shipping a variant of our C V1.3 with some
additions to better integrate it with their D705 toolset. 

Microway sell both of OUR C compilers as described above, but
also a "badged" Logical System toolkit, making a total of three
from them at the moment.  This is also true of CSA, although I
think they mention Logical Systems by name rather than badging.

Penguin have changed their name to Pentasoft Corporation.  This
compiler is used by the Trollius (previously Trillium) operating
system, I believe.

Well, as I said at the top, I hope that people will regard this
as helpful rather than simply an advert.  If, on the other hand,
you want some more information, you are welcome to contact me.

	-- Ian Young, 3L Ltd.