Transputers and switches as objects in OCCAM (Q1110303)

This paper introduces a transputer multi-processor architecture that has been developed at Southampton University in collaboration with other partners under an Esprit research contract. It first introduces and characterizes the T800 transputer, which is the component used in the construction of this supercomputer. The machine was designed as an OCCAM engine, although other language support will be developed within this collaboration. The strategy for embedding hardware features such as the switches and busses used in the design, into an OCCAM model, is explored and further development to provide an insight into how a such a system may be efficiently programmed using a variety of parallel decomposition techniques. In particular we look at an object-orientated approach to scheduling resources, executing processes and performing operations or methods on whole data structures.