Editing Transputer (section)

=== T400 ===
Part of the original Inmos strategy was to make CPUs so small and cheap that they could be combined with other logic in one device. Although a ''[[system on a chip]]'' (SoC) as they are commonly termed, are ubiquitous now, the concept was almost unheard of back in the early 1980s. Two projects were started in around 1983, the ''M212'' and the ''TV-toy''. The M212 was based on a standard T212 core with the addition of a disk controller for the ST 506 and ST 412 Shugart standards. TV-toy was to be the basis for a [[video game console]] and was joint project between Inmos and [[Sinclair Research]].

The links in the T212 and T414/T424 transputers had hardware DMA engines so that transfers could happen in parallel with execution of other processes. A variant of the design, termed the T400, not to be confused with a later transputer of the same name, was designed where the CPU handled these transfers. This reduced the size of the device considerably since 4 link engines were approximately the same size as the whole CPU. The T400 was intended to be used as a core in what were then called ''systems on silicon'' (SOS) devices, now termed and better known as ''[[system on a chip]]'' (SoC). It was this design that was to form part of TV-toy. The project was canceled in 1985.