A multiple-level heterogeneous architecture for image understanding

The image understanding architecture (IUA) system is designed specifically for computer vision processing that relies heavily on artificial intelligence techniques to classify objects. To provide for low-, intermediate-, and high-level computer vision processing, the IUA system combines three heterogeneous levels of parallelism with associative processing mechanisms. The lowest level of the IUA contains a SIMD array of per pixel bit-serial processing elements with networking capabilities that exceed those of present bit-serial machines. The SIMD level is closely mated with a middle-level MIMD array of high-performance digital signal processing chips that communicate via a flexible, modular message-passing network. The dual-capability architecture is much more effective than a solely SIMD or MIMD organization. The highest level comprises an array of general-purpose microprocessors for symbol manipulation. The first- and second-generation implementations of the IUA architecture are described