TOPS-a distributed operating system kernel for transputer systems

The authors describe a programming environment (TOPS) that creates an abstraction level such that a network of transputers is regarded as a virtual machine independent of the network topology. TOPS provides an extended process model and higher level of message passing than is provided by a bare transputer. The development of TOPS arose in the context of various projects requiring a higher level of flexibility. The discussion covers the transputer system, functionality of TOPS, the task model in TOPS, event handling, dynamic memory measurement, input-output in TOPS, and an evaluation of TOPS