CRBLASTER: A Parallel-Processing Computational Framework for Embarrassingly Parallel Image-Analysis Algorithms

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe development of parallel-processing image-analysis codes is generally a challenging task that requires complicated choreography of interprocessor communications. If, however, the image-analysis algorithm is embarrassingly parallel, then the development of a parallel-processing implementation of that algorithm can be a much easier task to accomplish because, by definition, there is little need for communication between the compute processes. I describe the design, implementation, and performance of a parallel-processing image-analysis application, called crblaster, which does cosmic-ray rejection of CCD images using the embarrassingly parallel l.a.cosmic algorithm. crblaster is written in C using the high-performance computing industry standard Message Passing Interface (MPI) library. crblaster uses a two-dimensional image partitioning algorithm that partitions an input image into N rectangular subimages of nearly equal area; the subimages include sufficient additional pixels along common image partition edges such that the need for communication between computer processes is eliminated. The code has been designed to be used by research scientists who are familiar with C as a parallel-processing computational framework that enables the easy development of parallel-processing image-analysis programs based on embarrassingly parallel algorithms. The crblaster source code is freely available at the official application Web site at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Removing cosmic rays from a single 800 × 800 pixel Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 image takes 44 s with the IRAF script lacos_im.cl running on a single core of an Apple Mac Pro computer with two 2.8 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors. crblaster is 7.4 times faster when processing the same image on a single core on the same machine. Processing the same image with crblaster simultaneously on all eight cores of the same machine takes 0.875 s—which is a speedup factor of 50.3 times faster than the IRAF script. A detailed analysis is presented of the performance of crblaster, using between 1 and 57 processors on a low-power Tilera 700 MHz 64 core TILE64 processor.