Parallel SAR processor using PVM on a Beowulf cluster

Author

Inggs, M.R. ; Bennett, T.G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Cape Town Univ., Rondebosch, South Africa

Volume

4

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

1850

Abstract

Beowulf cluster computers (often called a "pile of PCs") have become common place, since they offer significant processing power at a fraction of the cost of custom, massively parallel machines. The processing needs of SAR naturally seem to point to a Beowulf cluster. However, as with all parallel computing, task granularity is a governing factor in the choice of compute node (processor, memory) and the interconnection (network technology and switch). This paper examines some of these issues in the design and testing of a SAR processor for a non real-time airborne radar. The system presented was constrained to fit to an existing, small Beowulf cluster

Keywords

geophysical techniques; geophysics computing; parallel architectures; radar computing; remote sensing by radar; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; Beowulf cluster; PVM; SAR; airborne radar; geophysical measurement technique; geophysics computing; land surface; parallel SAR processor; parallel computing; parallel processing; parallel virtual machine; pile of PCs; radar remote sensing; synthetic aperture radar; task granularity; terrain mapping; Computer networks; Concurrent computing; Costs; Multiprocessor interconnection networks; Parallel machines; Parallel processing; Personal communication networks; Switches; Synthetic aperture radar; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2001. IGARSS '01. IEEE 2001 International

Conference_Location

Sydney, NSW

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7031-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2001.977093

Filename

977093