Objective
The SPIRIT/IMAGE project aims to develop a multiprocessor workstation for high-and mid-performance image, video and picture processing. The development is based on open standards in both hardware and software and uses results from the SPIRIT (2484) and EWS (2569) projects.
Symmetrical multiprocessing based on local and system buses (M-bus and Futurebus+) will be combined with special filter processor-based image-processing accelerators. Standard multiprocessor Unix will allow the use of readily available development tools and the easy porting of applications across 32-bit PCs, Sparc stations and SPIRIT/IMAGE configurations.
The project will proceed by:
-specifying the necessary variety of hardware required for image processing applications dependant on their data capture, processing storage and display requirements
-specifying the standards necessary for the merge of graphics, animation, multimedia and image processing
-developing a high-performance vision based system based on Futurebus+ technology.
Potential markets for the workstation include high-performance graphics applications in the medical, biomedical analysis, printing, publishing and robot vision system fields.