Real-time image processing requires high computational and I/O throughputs obtained by use of optoelectronic system solutions. A novel architecture that uses focal-plane optoelectronic-area I/O with a fine-grain, low-memory, single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) processor array is presented as an efficient computational solution for real-time hyperspectral image processing. The architecture is evaluated by use of realistic workloads to determine data throughputs, processing demands, and storage requirements. We show that traditional store-and-process system performance is inadequate for this application domain, whereas the focal-plane SIMD architecture is capable of supporting real-time performances with sustained operation throughputs of 500-1500 gigaoperations/s. The focal-plane architecture exploits the direct coupling between sensor and parallel-processor arrays to alleviate data-bandwidth requirements, allowing computation to be performed in a stream-parallel computation model, while data arrive from the sensors.

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Future military scenarios will rely on advanced imaging sensor technology beyond the visible spectrum to gain total battlefield awareness. Real-time processing of these data streams requires tremendous computational workloads and I/O throughputs. This paper presents three applications for hyper-spectral data streams, vector quantization, region autofocus, and K-means clustering, on the SIMD Pixel Processor (SIMPil). In SIMPil, an image sensor array (focal plane) is integrated on top of a SIMD computing layer to provide direct coupling between sensors and processors, alleviating I/O bandwidth bottlenecks while maintaining low power consumption and portability. Simulation results with sustained operation throughputs of 500-1500 Gops/sec support real-time performances and promote focal plane processing on SIMPil.