Three small but ambitious parallel supercomputer builders are joining forces with Inmos International Plc to develop a standard European parallel supercomputer around the new T9000 Transputer from the SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV subsidiary. The three, teaming under the European Community’s Esprit research programme, are Meiko Scientific Ltd, Bristol, UK, Thorn EMI Plc buy-out Parsys Ltd, London W and Telmat Informatique SA, Soultz, France. They are calling the project GP MIMD – chosen so as to be equally unpronounceable in all European languages: it stands for General Purpose Multiple Instruction Multiple Data, which is potentially the most powerful but is also the most difficult to program of all. Underlining their commitment to the project, the three have agreed not to develop any new computers of their own around the T9000, although they are free to upgrade their existing machines to use it. The team will get the first iterations of the T9000, and the intention is to have the first machine ready by the second half of next year. Scalability is a key requirement for the machine, and on the software front, a new microkernel-based implementation of Unix is being developed to be integrated with the Applications Support Interface, which has already been specified to ensure that applications will be portable between machines built to the standard: the Interface will support Fortran, C and C++. Compilers will be based on the Virtual Binary Interface developed under the Esprit Open Microprocessor Initiative, which has been adopted by the Open Software Foundation for its Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format.
