"…sequential computers are approaching a fundamental physical
limit on their potential power. Such a limit is the speed of light…"
Transputers are high performance microprocessors developed by Inmos Ltd. (now ST Microelectronics) that support parallel processing through on-chip hardware. They can be connected together by their serial links in application-specific ways and can be used as the building blocks for complex parallel processing systems. Multitransputer systems can be built very simply. The four high speed links allow transputers to be connected to each other in arrays, trees and many other configurations. The circuitry to drive the links is all on the transputer chip and only two wires are needed to connect two transputers together. In addition to providing a communication and synchronization path between processors, transputer links allow memory to be examined directly by debugging programs and permit programs to be loaded onto whole networks of transputers down a single transputer link. Each individual transputer also supports communication between parallel processes through a system of internal links implemented as words in memory. Each transputer has a highly efficient built-in run-time scheduler for processes running in parallel on the same transputer and supports channel communication through single words in memory. Processes waiting for input or output, or waiting on a timer, consume no CPU resources, and process context switching time can be as little as one microsecond. The communication links between processors operate concurrently with the processing unit and can transfer data simultaneously on all links without the intervention of the CPU
This article is translated to Serbo-Croatian language by Jovana Milutinovich from Geeks Education.
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