Meiko In-Sun Computing Surface

If you would like to develop high-performance, hardware-independent parallel applications, write parallel code using conventional high-level languages, and create easily maintainable and portable software, then Meiko’s In-Sun Computing Surface may interest you. The product family integrates a networked multiuser window-based interface, Unix, and the computational performance of a parallel machine and supports industry-standard programming languages, debuggers, support utilities, and other productivity tools.

The In-Sun Computing Surface is a scalable, multiprocessor, distributed memory architecture. Individual processors execute sequential threads of an application program and exchange information via interprocessor message links. You can use the processors independently for sequential applications or in groups for parallel applications. The boards have from one to four T800 transputers that manage the interface between individual application processors and the host environment. These interface processors have a shared memory system of up to 4 MB of multi ported RAM, of which 1 MB is dual-ported to the VMEbus. The operation of the interface is entirely transparent, supporting data transfer rates of 2.2 megabytes per second to the Sun filing system and Sun-hosted application front ends.

The Message Link Switch allows you to establish high-speed, low-latency message paths between the Sun environment and all the individual application processors anywhere within the Computing Surface (i.e., processors on the same board, on other boards within the Sun chassis, or within an attached Computing Surface module). Message paths through the switch all operate at 20 megabits per second simultaneously. The Link Highway is the means by which the Message Link Switch extends transparently across board edges. It is entirely enclosed within the electrical environment and chassis of the host machine.

The System Supervisor is a global communications bus that operates independently of the interprocessor message-passing architecture. It lets you monitor and report run-time and memory-system errors and gives you a dedicated independent path for diagnostics and symbolic debugging. You can reset and reload selected groups of individual application processors without disturbing the rest of the community.

Sun-VCS (Virtual Computing Surface) provides the resource management and physical interface control software. It combines the flexible capabilities of the In-Sun Computing Surface integrated with the SunOS environment. Sun-VCS transparently reconfigures the hardware, establishing the appropriate topologies demanded by parallel applications as they are loaded for execution.