The 30 year-old Transputer architecture is showing no sign of running out of steam, according to STMicroelectronics which took over Transputer development after buying Inmos from Thorn-EMI in 1989

"We don't see any end for the Transputer architecture, it's in the DNA of a lot of what we do", said Phil Morris, managing director of ST's Bristol design centre, adding, "some of the guys here worked on the original Transputer."

Inmos' Chameleon multimedia processor architecture is currently being used to extend the ST40 general purpose processor, the ST200 VLIW media processor, and in system development tools.

ST has 220 engineers in Bristol and recruited 33 in 2007. "None of them individually develop a product. They work with all the other national groups," said Morris.

For instance, Bristol has four groups: home video cores and subsystems software, tools and services, and connectivity.

The cores group works with teams in France, Italy and India, while the home video group, which is working on both a low-end box for the digital switch-over and a high-end DVB-T2 box for high definition terrestrial TV, is "a multinational effort involving six sites on four continents", said Morris.

"We're here because of Inmos", said Morris, "but we recently spent £1.7m on the building. Thanks to Inmos there's a significant semiconductor cluster so it's good for employment."

In recognition of ST's commitment to Inmos site in Bristol and to its contribution in making the area the largest agglomeration of IC designers in Europe, last year, the University of Bristol gave ST's former CEO, Pasquale Pistorio, an honorary doctorate.

Apart from Bristol, ST also has, in the UK, 120 engineers in Edinburgh, the result of its takeover of VLSI Vision, who work on CMOS digital imaging, 20 engineers in Fleet working on 3G mobile technology, the result of its takeover of Nokia's IC design activity, and 60 sales and marketing people in Marlowe.

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