ParSiFal

In the late 1980s the 3 year DTI-Alvey ParSiFal project (Parallel Simulation Facility) developed various hardware and software tools, and example applications, for transputer-based systems. The partners were Logica Cambridge, Cambridge University Engineering Department, GEC-Marconi Research, FEGS, inmos, Manchester University, and Polytechnic of Central London.

For ParSiFal, I designed and implemented the GRAIL tool (Graphical Representation of Activity, Interconnection and Loading). GRAIL provides a pictorial means of displaying the parallel structure and communication paths of an occam program, and uses this to display, as a colour overlay, monitoring information gathered from occam programs executing on multiple transputers.