Real-time image processing requires high computational and I/O throughputs
obtained by use of optoelectronic system solutions. A novel architecture th
at uses focal-plane optoelectronic-area I/O with a fine-grain, low-memory,
single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) processor array is presented as an
efficient computational solution for real-time hyperspectral image processi
ng. The architecture is evaluated by use of realistic workloads to determin
e data throughputs, processing demands, and storage requirements. We show t
hat traditional store-and-process system performance is inadequate for this
application domain, whereas the focal-plane SIMD architecture is capable o
f supporting real-time performances with sustained operation throughputs of
500-1500 gigaoperations/s. The focal-plane architecture exploits the direc
t coupling between sensor and parallel-processor arrays to alleviate data-b
andwidth requirements, allowing computation to be performed in a stream-par
allel computation model, while data arrive from the sensors. (C) 2000 Optic
al Society of America.