Programmable real-time applications with the 3D-Flow for input data rate systems of hundreds of MHz

Abstract

The applicability of the 3D-Flow system to different experimental setups for real-time applications in the range of hundreds of nanoseconds is described. The results of the simulation of several real-time applications using the 3D-Flow demonstrate the advantages of a simple architecture that carries out operations in a balanced manner using regular connections and exceptionally few replicated components compared to conventional microprocessors. Diverse applications can be found that will benefit from this approach: High Energy Physics (HEP), which typically requires discerning patterns from thousands of accelerator particle collision signals up to 40 Mhz input data rate; Medical Imaging, that requires interactive tools for studying fast occurring biological processes; processing output from high-rate CCD cameras in commercial applications, such as quality control in manufacturing; data compression; speech and character recognition; automatic automobile guidance, and other applications. The 3D-Flow system was conceived for experiments at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). It was adopted by the Gamma Electron and Muon (GEM) experiment that was to be used for particle identification. The target of the 3D-Flow system was real-time pattern recognition at 100 million frames/sec.