Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!zodiac!meridian!pkahn
From: pkahn@meridian.ads.com (Phil Kahn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Multiprocessor Add-ins for MACII
Message-ID: <5479@zodiac.UUCP>
Date: 19 Sep 88 17:32:05 GMT
References: <3197@emory.uucp>
Sender: news@zodiac.UUCP
Reply-To: pkahn@meridian.UUCP (Phil Kahn)
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mt. View, CA (415) 941-3912
Lines: 44

In article <3197@emory.uucp> km@emory.uucp (Ken Mandelberg) writes:
>Does anyone know of any multiprocessor add in boards
>for the MACII? I have seen boards for the IBM PC with
>multiple transputers, and hints that there are similar
>boards for the MACII, but have never seen anything firm.
>
>Even better, are there any shared memory multiprocessor
>boards for the MACII or any other reasonably cost micro?
>
>We are looking for hardware for a course in parallel
>processing.
>-- 
>Ken Mandelberg      | km@mathcs.emory.edu          PREFERRED
>Emory University    | {decvax,gatech}!emory!km     UUCP 
>Dept of Math and CS | km@emory                     NON-DOMAIN BITNET  
>Atlanta, GA 30322   | Phone: (404) 727-7963

There are several companies marketing these at various price ranges
for the NuBus in the MacII.  The market is just now rapidly expanding.
The following are the ones that I am aware of:

Levco Transputer (up to 4 transputers w/4MB apiece on each NuBus card)
(619) 457-2011 (~10K fully loaded)

Mercury Computer (a high performance RISC based machine w up to 8MB memory)
(415) 847-2025 (~$20-25K total (?))

TI MicroExplorer (a powerful LISP machine on a NuBus card)
(800) 527-3500 (~$12K for the board w/basic software & 4MB, ~$22K
w/8MB and extensive software development tools) 


YARC Systems (CRAY spelled backwards.  Powerful CPU, but strange and
small memory structure.)
(818) 889-4388 ($4400 when memory is available)


Usual disclaimers: I've never worked with any of these machines.
Personal opinion after evaluating them for my application (Computer
Vision and AI problems): The Mercury has the highest performance, but 
the TI is also powerful and better suited for AI and vision.


phil...