Re: [9fans] mmap

["ron minnich" <rminnich@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 6:22 AM, Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com> wrote:
>> has hardware channels. And you can
>> call from channel
>> and execute code being sent down a channel to you from another cpu.
> ...
>> it's a very interesting architecture, to say the least. For me anyway
>> the most novel thing I've seen in a while.
>
> Interesting but not novel.  Remember the transputer, circa 1985?  Hardware
> channels, both inter- and intra-chip.  The normal way of loading code was
> to read it down a link from another processor - used for bootstrapping
> an array of transputers, but also could be used for dynamic propagation
> of processes through the network.
>

yes, but IIRC the transputer did not have the ability to execute code
from a channel in the way the ambric does -- literally having a PC
that includes a channel ID. There are a few other wrinkles to the
ambric that make it a little neater than the transputer. Ambric is
pretty well aware of what the transputer did.

rno