Using transputers in a TCP/IP environment: the PCserver approach

MSDOS machines have always been the favourite host platforms for transputer networks. Unfortunately, it is hard for MSDOS-hosted transputers to be easily integrated within a network environment, due to the lack of native support for networking on the host. The availability, nowadays, of cheap hardware for Ethernet access has made it possible to use MSDOS machines as general purpose interfaces between TCP-IP networks and peripheral devices (modems, printers etc.). In this paper we show how to use the same approach to interface transputer networks to the Internet, with some advantages over solutions using dedicated hardware, or Unix workstations, as host machines. The result of our work is PCserver, public domain software that allows a single MSDOS machine to host several independent transputer networks which can be completely controlled from other machines on the Internet. Performance issues related to the implementation of PCserver and in general to the network interfacing of transputers are also discussed in some detail.