Patent · US Expired

Virtual bit map processor

US4939642A · kind A · utility

27Cited by
5References
7Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 24, 1989
Grant dateJul 3, 1990
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 24, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F15/8023
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A single instruction multiple data parallel processor has a rectangular array of processing elements which is smaller than the array of data to be processed. The array of data to be processed is divided into a number of segments, each equal in size to the processing element array. Each processing element includes a memory for storing one or more data values corresponding to one data element in each of these segments of the data array. To execute an instruction on all the data, the processing elements execute the instruction on one segment of the data array at a time, repeating the process until all the data has been processed. To do this, a primary address controller generates a sequence of segment address values for each instruction to be executed. The processing elements along the periphery of the processing element array are called edge processing elements. An edge address controller generates edge address values corresponding to the segment addresses of the segments neighboring the segment currently being addressed by the primary address controller. Each processing element is coupled to its neighbors so that it can execute instructions which require access to neighboring data e…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.