Definition: transputer

(TRANSistor comPUTER) A microprocessor architecture in the early 1980s from British semiconductor company Inmos Limited that contained a CPU, memory and communications capability on a single chip. Chips were strung together in hypercube or grid-like patterns to create parallel processing machines for scientific, real-time control and AI applications. Although newer superscalar CPU designs obsoleted the transputer, the same parallel architecture is today embodied in clusters of computers. Inmos was acquired by SGS-Thomson in 1989, which later became STMicroelectronics. See occam.