A multi-microcomputer system for volume image processing

The authors present the design of a multi-microcomputer system which provides the basis of a volume image-processing system. They present the architecture, the features of the operating system, and theoretical and experimental results. This system consists of a central computer and a number of satellite microcomputers. Communication between the central computer and each satellite is accomplished through dual-ported RAMs. It is a single-bus system with a star architecture, and under certain conditions, it can simulate other architectures such as a pipeline system. The authors developed an operating system that allows their multicomputer system to be used in user, star, queue, and pipeline processing modes. Under certain conditions, N satellites operating in parallel will result in an increase of the system processing rate of nearly N times.<>