The first applications of hot new chips usually come from tiny companies and Tektite Ltd of Felixstowe, Suffolk is the first out with a product that uses the Intel 80860 RISC microprocessor and Tektite is using it in combination with the Inmos International Transputer. The Flute range of add-on boards for personal computers is claimed to implement a distributed graphics supercomputer. The Flute graphics and processing module consists of 40MHz 80860 with 24Mb main memory, 4Mb of dual-ported display memory, programmable display controller supporting both 8-bit per pixel video at 1,280 by 1,024 with 256 colours from a colour palette of 16.7m, and 24-bit per pixel at 1,024 by 800, using all 16.7m colours. A 10 MIPS Inmos T222 Transputer communicates with the 80860 via 8Kb of dual-port memory and handles system services with bootstrap support from 64Kb of flash EPROM, and the four 20Mbps serial communications channels to processing modules. The base module is offered as an AT expansion board, and can support multiple Processing Modules implemented in the 16-pin Inmos TRAM format, so that they can be installed in MS-DOS micros, DEC VAXes or Sun Microsystems workstations. The Graphics and Processing Module is UKP17,500, the Processing Module UKP7,500, and they will be available in the third quarter. GAFS graphics software with display routines callable from Occam and provides access to graphics facilities of Borland International’s Turbo C is available at from UKP400.
