🚀 go-pugleaf

** This brings up a simple question: Who wants massively parallel
** machines anyhow? Computer Scientists and Engineers experiment
** with and develop systems - what are they used for? I'm all
** for research for its own sake, but there are actually people
** out there who want to apply it. I suppose the questions are more
** along these lines: What are the foreseen uses of large parallel
** machines? Is this in line with current research? What should 
** they be used for (besides weather prediction, Mandelbrot sets, etc.)?

   We have developed a massively parallel, Video Supercomputer a.k.a.
the Princeton Engine. This is a SIMD machine with 2048 16bit custom
DSP chips. It was originally intended for HDTV research but has since
found a diverse number of applications including image pyramid
processing, multispectral analysis, SAR, histogram equalization, Data
compression algorithms, neural nets, terrain rendering, medical
imaging, volume visualization, ultrasound processing, teleoperation
and, oh, even mandlebrot sets.... All these applications run in
continuous real-time. For example, we simulate in continuous real-time
HDTV system proposals. HDTV simulations on conventional computing
platforms, for example, high-end mainframes take 10 to 20 hours to
compute ONE second of video - while on the Princeton Engine this is
continuous real-time - we watch "television" on the computer. For a
conventional mainframe to assemble even a "few seconds" of a single
simulation of important design ideas (perhaps to show your boss) it
might take weeks to compose, simulate and evaluate. On a system such
as the Princeton Engine - the process is real-time.

  In fact, the kind of interaction one can have with the creative
design process when the response of the computer is instant is
extraordinary - and is difficult to describe without sounding
unbelievable. It is even different then the interaction one can have
with other very fast computers - even a supercomputer. 

 The Princeton Engine was originally developed when DSRC was RCA Labs.
One system has been here at DSRC in Princeton and one in Indianapolis
Ind. for almost three years. This spring we are placing another system
at NIST in Maryland under DARPA sponsorship. The NIST system will be
used primarily by DARPA HDTV program participants.

 Many of the important conceptual ideas embodied in the recent DARPA
BAA for High Definition systems will require massive parallel systems
to fully explore the underlying ideas. DARPA's interest lies in, "high
resolution systems for applications in command and control, battle
management, training and simulation, intelligence analysis, weapons
systems..." If one examines the processing requirements to accomplish
several of the ares embodied in the BAA it is evident that a
significant measure of parallism will be required. The technical areas
of the BAA include displays, processors, etc. These are fundamentally
the areas where the Princeton Engine has found great applicability.


  H Taylor.