Parsys Ltd, manufacturer of the SuperNode 1000 Transputer-based parallel processing supercomputers, has been spun out from Thorn EMI. The spinout was backed by the venture capital company Electra Innvotec Ltd which gets a 52% stake in the new company. Thorn EMI has retained 33%, and the management and staff hold the remaining 15%. Neither Thorn EMI nor Innvotec wish to reveal the exact cost. The chairman is Douglas Stevenson, formerly chief executive of Software Sciences Ltd, and Inmos Ltd, which was acquired by Thorn EMI in 1984. Managing director David Watson, and commercial director Ian Coburn, were both involved with the development of the SN 1000 under the aegis of an Esprit project. The Parsys SN 1000 series has an installed base in military research including the Royal Signals & Research Establishment which was also involved in the initial Esprit development project. Other users include University College London, Catalonia University, and the University of Southampton, another a contributor to the Esprit project. Several Transputer Centres and industrial research projects use the SN 1000 series, and Parsys is due to announce its first sale to a financial institution. The SN 1000 series provides from 16 to 1,024 processors in hierarchical reconfigurable arrays, and runs under the Idris operating system. It is Posix-compliant and originated 12 years ago with Whitesmiths Ltd, and was further developed by the Isle of Man-based Real Time Systems Ltd (CI No 1,130). Parsys says that the next 12 months will see the introduction of new products. Oracle’s software will be ported to the SN 1000, creating high performance database engines. The company is collaborating with FEGS, which specialises in finite element analysis, and it also plans to release a direct Ethernet connection. The majority of Parsys’ business is in the UK, but it does have a continental presence via Intechmij, a Dutch distributer. The manufacture of the SN 1000 series is subcontracted to Thorn EMI Micrologic, and pure research will be conducted on behalf of the affiliate by Thorn EMI Research. Janice McGinn