A Framework for Real-Time High-Throughput
Signal and Image Processing on Workstations
Prof. Brian L. Evans
in collaboration with
Greg E. Allen and
K. Clint Slatton
Embedded Signal Processing Laboratory
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1084
2:00 PM, August 5, 1999, Shell Technology Center, Houston, TX
Talk
Abstract
Real-time data-intensive systems such as sonar beamformers and
synthetic aperture radar processors have traditionally required
implementation in expensive custom hardware. Current systems use
off-the-shelf programmable processors in customized configurations
to reduce development cost. To reduce development cost and time
further, we consider the use of workstations as the target
architecture and design environment. We present a general approach
for realizing real-time data-intensive systems in software on a
multiprocessor workstation.
First, we present several dataflow models which are commonly used
to describe signal processing systems. Second, we present a
framework for developing scalable software implementations of
signal processing systems on workstations. The framework models
the concurrency and parallelism in these systems using Process
Networks. The Process Networks model guarantees determinate
execution of concurrent programs regardless of the scheduling
algorithm being used. We employ a scheduling algorithm that always
finds a bounded execution if one exists. Third, we implement the
framework in C++ using lightweight real-time POSIX threads.
We use two case studies to evaluate the performance of our framework:
a high-resolution 3-D sonar beamformer and a synthetic aperture radar
processor. On a Sun Ultra Enterprise workstation, the 4-GFLOP
beamformer exhibits near-linear speedup using 1 to 12 processors and
executes in real time with 12 336-MHz UltraSPARC-II processors.
Time permitting, Prof. Evans will give a brief overview of other
research being conducted in the Embedded Signal Processing Laboratory.
Biography
Brian L. Evans is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at
The University of Texas at Austin,
and the Director of the
Embedded Signal
Processing Laboratory,
which is part of the Center for Telecommunications and Signal Processing and
the Center for Vision and
Image Sciences.
His research
interests include
real-time embedded systems; signal, image and video processing systems;
system-level design; electronic design automation; symbolic computation;
and filter design.
Dr. Evans has published over 50 refereed conference and journal papers
in these fields.
He developed and currently teaches
EE381K
Multidimensional Digital Signal Processing,
EE382C
Embedded Software Systems, and
EE379K-17
Real-Time Digital Signal Processing Laboratory.
His B.S.E.E.C.S. (1987) degree is from the
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology,
and his M.S.E.E. (1988) and Ph.D.E.E. (1993) degrees are from the
Georgia Institute of Technology.
From 1993 to 1996, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the
University of California at
Berkeley with the
Ptolemy Project.
Ptolemy is a
research
project and
software
environment focused on design methodology for signal processing,
communications, and controls systems.
In addition to Ptolemy, he has played a key role in the development and
release of six other computer-aided design frameworks, including the
Signals and Systems Pack for Mathematica, which has been on
the market since the Fall of 1995.
He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Image
Processing,
a member of the Design and Implementation of Signal
Processing Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing
Society, and
a Senior Member of the IEEE.
He is a recipient of a 1997
National
Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Mail comments about this page to
bevans@ece.utexas.edu.