GaAs Supercomputing: Architecture, Language, And Algorithms For Image Processing

John T. Johl; Nick C. Baker

doi:10.1117/12.968975

25 October 1988 GaAs Supercomputing: Architecture, Language, And Algorithms For Image Processing

John T. Johl, Nick C. Baker

Proceedings Volume 1001, Visual Communications and Image Processing '88: Third in a Series; (1988) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.968975
Event: Visual Communications and Image Processing III, 1988, Cambridge, MA, United States

Abstract

The application of high-speed GaAs processors in a parallel system matches the demanding computational requirements of image processing. The architecture of the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (MDAC) vector processor is described along with the algorithms and language translator. Most image and signal processing algorithms can utilize parallel processing and show a significant performance improvement over sequential versions. The parallelization performed by this system is within each vector instruction. Since each vector has many elements, each requiring some computation, useful concurrent arithmetic operations can easily be performed. Balancing the memory bandwidth with the computation rate of the processors is an important design consideration for high efficiency and utilization. The architecture features a bus-based execution unit consisting of four to eight 32-bit GaAs RISC microprocessors running at a 200 MHz clock rate for a peak performance of 1.6 BOPS. The execution unit is connected to a vector memory with three buses capable of transferring two input words and one output word every 10 nsec. The address generators inside the vector memory perform different vector addressing modes and feed the data to the execution unit. The functions discussed in this paper include basic MATRIX OPERATIONS, 2-D SPATIAL CONVOLUTION, HISTOGRAM, and FFT. For each of these algorithms, assembly language programs were run on a behavioral model of the system to obtain performance figures.

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John T. Johl and Nick C. Baker "GaAs Supercomputing: Architecture, Language, And Algorithms For Image Processing", Proc. SPIE 1001, Visual Communications and Image Processing '88: Third in a Series, (25 October 1988); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.968975

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KEYWORDS

Signal processing

Image processing

Gallium arsenide

Visual communications

Computing systems

Convolution

Computer programming

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