Floating Point Systems Inc, Beaverton, Oregon is finding that it overstretched itself severely when it bet the shop developing the innovative T-series of Inmos International Transputer-based parallel supercomputers. Sales got off to a very slow start as a result of lack of software, and in order to keep the thing alive, the company announced yesterday that it is seeking a joint venture partner to fund futher development of the machine. Floating Point intends to focus its own resources on reasserting its position as the leading supplier of integrated array processor and minisupercomputer compute servers. It plans to continue support and limited sales of its existing T Series supercomputer, but will suspend internally-funded development of a next-generation massively parallel supercomputer unless a partner is found. The hypercube parallel supercomputing market today is small and emerging, yet the hardware and software development is very difficult, the company says. We pioneered the massively parallel supercomputer business and our T Series supercomputer is still the best machine of its kind. We are looking to find a partner who has the resources to back future development of this important, leading-edge technology.
