A microcomputer, devised and manufactured by the UK company INMOS (now part of STMicroelectronics) in the 1980s, designed to facilitate interprocess and interprocessor communication. The transputer comprised a 32-bit RISC processor with fast on-chip static RAM, process scheduling in hardware with a submicrosecond context switch, external memory controller, and high-speed serial links. Although very advanced for its time, the transputer was rendered obsolete by the increasing power of mainstream microprocessors. See also occam.