Techniques for Real-Time Parallel Processing: Sensor Processing Case Studies

Abstract

The software development process for parallel processors is investigated with a focus on real-time sensor processing applications. Concepts that are relevant to real-time parallel processing are introduced including: a definition of scalable dataflow graphs motivated by the need to meet a fixed throughput constraint for varying problem sizes, an algorithm classification that makes explicit the impact that data dependencies have in real-time implementations, and a real-time implementation strategy that decomposes the most problematic algorithms into compositions of more predictable constituents and then uses scalable dataflow graphs and parallel processing to recover timing predictability by mapping data dependent timing uncertainties into the spatial dimension (processors). Two case studies apply these ideas: an implementation of the Modified Gram-Schmidt (MGS) algorithm on a MasPar MP1 and an implementation of the joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) algorithm on a Thinking Machines CM-2. The JPDA case study includes a SISAL implementation to illustrate the advantages of functional programming for these applications. Parallel processors, Scalable dataflow graphs, Algorithms.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA280633

Entities

People

  • John D. Ramsdell
  • Joseph J. Rushanan
  • Richard A. Games

Organizations

  • MITRE Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • C Programming Language
  • Case Studies
  • Central Processing Units
  • Classification
  • Computational Complexity
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Data Association
  • Embedded Systems
  • Floating Point Operations
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Parallel Processors
  • Programming Languages
  • Software Development
  • Target Recognition

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Operations Research
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.