Digital processing of images for earth observation satellites - uses large capacity semiconductor memory to replace hard disc devices or bulk storage in real-time processing of satellite images

摘要

The processing system comprises a bulk memory (18) made up of modules (40) of dynamic random access semi-conductor memory in which each addressable word contains m x n bits. A parallel bus having m x n lines is connected between the bulk memory and an output device. A processing unit is connected to the bus. In an alternative implementation a high speed random access buffer memory, several orders of magnitude smaller than the bulk memory, is accessible by the global bus, and a local parallel bus, having the same number of lines as the global bus, links the memory and the output. USE/ADVANTAGE - Preprocessing of pixels images transmitted serially by earth observation satellites. Provides faster response by replacing mechanical bulk storage with semiconductor storage.