George J Roberson

US Patent:

55663419, Oct 15, 1996

Filed:

Oct 5, 1992

Appl. No.:

7/957511

Inventors:

George P. Roberson - Tracy CA
Michael F. Skeate - Livermore CA

Assignee:

The Regents of the University of California - Oakland CA

International Classification:

G06T 120

US Classification:

395800

Abstract:

An apparatus for multi-dimensional computation which comprises a computation engine, including a plurality of processing modules. The processing modules are configured in parallel and compute respective contributions to a computed multi-dimensional image of respective two dimensional data sets. A high-speed, parallel access storage system is provided which stores the multi-dimensional data sets, and a switching circuit routes the data among the processing modules in the computation engine and the storage system. A data acquisition port receives the two dimensional data sets representing projections through an image, for reconstruction algorithms such as encountered in computerized tomography. The processing modules include a programmable local host, by which they may be configured to execute a plurality of different types of multi-dimensional algorithms. The processing modules thus include an image manipulation processor, which includes a source cache, a target cache, a coefficient table, and control software for executing image transformation routines using data in the source cache and the coefficient table and loading resulting data in the target cache.