Robert Jackson, Minister at the Department of Education and Science with special responsibility for
higher education and science, opened the National Transputer Support Centre based at the Sheffield Science Park on 7 March 1987.
The Centre provided a focus for work on the transputer: a superchip which promised a new generation of very fast,
powerful computers operating around two hundred times faster than conventional micro-computers.
To provide a Regional Centre within the Initiative for the North-East and North Midlands of England;
To provide academic and industrial users with support, documentation, tutorials and space to
work with transputer equipment supplied by the Initiative;
To manage and maintain a Software Exchange Library.
The overall aims of the Transputer Initiative were:
To promote awareness of the potential of the transputer and its associated technology;
To capitalise on the expertise within the academic community to develop a viable software base;
To promote high quality research using transputers;