In a development that could give a substantial push to the problematic parallel processing business, Active Memory Technology Ltd, Reading-based builder and marketer of the DAP Distributed Array Processor, and Thinking Machines Corp, Cambridge, Massachusetts builder of the Connection Machine, have agreed to standardise their massively parallel C compilers worldwide, to provide users with a stable and portable environment for the development of parallel applications. One of the major dampers on the development of parallel applications has been the fact that each machine on the market has been proprietary, and most come from small, vulnerable companies. The common C will be based on the most current version of Thinking Machines’ C* language. Active Memory is taking a licence to parts of the compiler and Thinking Machines is licensing Active’s patents on single instruction multiple data architecture.
