Signal processing with Occam and the transputer

Abstract

The transputer and its programming language Occam offer a new approach to digital system design. The transputer is a computer on a chip, which may be used for building highly concurrent systems. Occam is a language in which a system may be described as a set of concurrent processes. Together they can simplify the task of designing and implementing concurrent systems. An ideal application with which to illustrate this is signal processing because it can make simple use of concurrency to build powerful systems. The paper describes Occam and the transputer, and shows how they may be used in a simple signal processing application.