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The hardware and software designs used to implement a high speed parallel communications interface to the MITRE 307.2 kilobit/second serial bus communications system are described. The primary topic is the development of the bus interface unit.
Studies conducted as part of the NASA-Lewis CF6 jet engine diagnostics program are summarized. An 82-engine sample of DC-10-10 aircraft engine checkout data that were gathered to define the extent and magnitude of CF6-6D short term performance deterioration were analyzed. These data are substantiated by the performance testing and analytical teardown of CF6-6D short term deterioration engine serial number (ESN) 451507.
A RAM memory built into the Mark 3 decoder module allows the capture of 1 Megabit of data. Data may be collected either in real time or from a pre-recorded tape. Once collected, the data may be retrieved using a standard EIA serial data link. The data may be transmitted to a remote computer for cross correlation processing with similar data from other stations to verify fringes in real time. The data may also be analyzed by a local computer to verify phase calibration, bandpass, format, etc., during a Mark 3 observing session.
A set of standard telemetry protocols for downlink data flow facilitating the end-to-end transport of instrument data from the spacecraft to the user in real time is proposed. The direct switching of data by autonomous message 'packets' that are assembled by the source instrument on the spacecraft is discussed. The data system consists thus of a format on a message rather than word basis, and such packet telemetry would include standardized protocol headers. Standards are being developed within the NASA End-to-End Data System (NEEDS) program for the source packet and transport frame protocols. The source packet protocol contains identification of both the sequence number of the packet as it is generated by the source and the total length of the packet, while the transport frame protocol includes a sequence count defining the serial number of the frame as it is generated by the spacecraft data system, and a field specifying any 'options' selected in the format of the frame itself.
Tubbs and Coberly (1978) demonstrated that Landsat multispectral scanner data are not independent random observations, but, are in fact highly correlated. They also demonstrated that the correlation structure for the data is similar to that of a stationary autoregressive process of order one. This paper investigates the effect that serially correlated training data have upon both the estimation of parameters and the classification problem. Results are included for both the Bayesian and maximum likelihood classification procedures.
This paper presents: (1) a short historical review of the passive microwave research on sea ice, which established the observational and theoretical base permitting the interpretation of the first passive microwave images of earth obtained by the Nimbus-5 ESMR; (2) the construction of a time-lapse motion picture film of a 16-month set of serial ESMR images to aid in the formidable data analysis task; and (3) a few of the most significant findings resulting from an early analysis of these data, using selected ESMR images to illustrate these findings.
The Solar Flux Radiometer aboard the Pioneer Venus Sounder Probe operated successfully during its descent through the atmosphere of Venus. The instrument measured atmospheric radiance over the spectral range from 400 to 1800 nm as a function of altitude. Elevation and azimuthal measurements on the radiation field were made with five optical channels. Twelve filtered Si and Ge photovoltaic detectors were maintained near 30 C with a phase-change material. The detector output currents were processed with logarithmic transimpedance converters and digitized with an 11-bit A/D converter. Atmospheric sampling in both elevation and azimuth was done according to a Gaussian integration scheme. The serial output data averaged 20 bits/sec, including housekeeping (sync, spin period, sample timing and mode). The data were used to determine the deposition of solar energy in the atmosphere of Venus between 67 km and the surface along with upward and downward fluxes and radiances with an altitude resolution of several hundred meters. The results allow for more accurate modeling of the radiation balance of the atmosphere than previously possible.
A bubble memory module design providing flexibility for many user applications in spacecraft data recording is described. The memory module can be used with user-designed controllers with the memory organization determined by the application. Asynchronous data rates from zero to 1.33 Mbits/sec at minimum power are accomplished by using 8-chip memory cells with 100 K bit serial chips. The memory module is expandable from a 4 x 2 cell matrix to a 4 x 16 cell matrix corresponding to an expandable capacity of 6.55 M to 52.4 M bits. The module's design, utility in various memory systems, and user clocking scheme are described.
The massively parallel processor (MPP) system is designed to process satellite imagery at high rates. A large number (16,384) of processing elements (PE's) are configured in a square array. For optimum performance on operands of arbitrary length, processing is performed in a bit-serial manner. On 8-bit integer data, addition can occur at 6553 million operations per second (MOPS) and multiplication at 1861 MOPS. On 32-bit floating-point data, addition can occur at 430 MOPS and multiplication at 216 MOPS.
Microprocessor-based interface simplifies interconnection of peripheral device with common memory of network of minicomputers. Interface consists of microprocessor, bidirectional port that connects to common memory, bidirectional port that connects to user-selected peripheral, and asynchronous serial communications port. Programable interface is based around 6800 microprocessor. It is assembled from 90 integrated circuits.
The Spacelab experiment interface device (SEID) is described which simulates the electrical, and logical connections of the Spacelab remote acquisition unit (RAU), the interface functions of the Spacelab experiment computer software, and the electrical aspects of the high rate multiplexer. Simulated RAU interfaces include PCM serial channels (up to four), user time clock (UTC), flexible inputs (up to 128) and discrete outputs (up to 64). Connectors are logically compatible with the rau. be instructed to execute sequences of input/output commands to the RAU, similar to those performed during flight. This approximation of the experiment computer software is adequate to detect interface problems and prevent these from occurring during Spacelab payload integration. The SEID hardware is a microprocessor based system, utilizing an 8085 microprocessor with 6K of PROM and 4K of static RAM. The basic unit is augmented with an LSI-11 microcomputer to provide disk storage and a more dynamic environment for generation of control data. A simulation of the general monitoring loop is provided to emulate Spacelab system timing.
Design, fabrication and test of partially populated prototype recorder using 100 kilobit serial chips is described. Electrical interface, operating modes, and mechanical design of several module configurations are discussed. Fabrication and test of the module demonstrated the practicality of multiplexing resulting in lower power, weight, and volume. This effort resulted in the completion of a module consisting of a fully engineered printed circuit storage board populated with 5 of 8 possible cells and a wire wrapped electronics board. Interface of the module is 16 bits parallel at a maximum of 1.33 megabits per second data rate on either of two interface buses.
Computer modeling studies are reported for a monolithic, two junction, cascade solar cell using the AlGaAs GaAs materials combination. An optimum design was obtained through a serial optimization procedure by which conversion efficiency is maximized for operation at 300 K, AM 0, and unity solar concentration. Under these conditions the upper limit on efficiency was shown to be in excess of 29 percent, provided surface recombination velocity did not exceed 10,000 cm/sec.
The QR algorithm used on a serial computer and executed on the Control Data Corporation 6000 Computer was adapted to execute efficiently on the Control Data STAR-100 computer. How the scalar program was adapted for the STAR-100 and why these adaptations yielded an efficient STAR program is described. Program listings of the old scalar version and the vectorized SL/1 version are presented in the appendices. Execution times for the two versions applied to the same system of linear equations, are compared.
The SMART Multiplexer Interface Adapter, (SMIA) a complete system interface for message structure of the MIL-STD-1553, is described. It provides buffering and storage for transmitted and received data and handles all the necessary handshaking to interface between parallel 8-bit data bus and a MIL-STD serial bit stream. The bus adapter is configured as either a bus controller of a remote terminal interface. It is coupled directly to the multiplex bus, or stub coupled through an additional isolation transformer located at the connection point. Fault isolation resistors provide short circuit protection.
The applicability of parallel processing schemes to the implementation of a contextual classification algorithm which exploits the spatial and spectral context of a multispectral remote sensing pixel to achieve classification is examined. Two algorithms for classifying each multivariate pixel taking into account the probable classifications of neighboring pixels are presented which make use of a size three horizontally linear neighborhood, and the serial computational complexity of the more efficient algorithm is shown to grow in proportion to the number of pixels and the cube of the number of possible categories. The implementation of the more efficient algorithm on a CDC Flexible Processor system and on a multimicroprocessor system such as the proposed PASM is then discussed. It is noted that the use of N processors to perform the calculations N times faster than a single processor overcomes the principal disadvantage of contexual classifiers, i.e., their computational complexity.
This paper describes algorithms for efficiently computing inventory estimates from satellite based images. The algorithms incorporate a one dimensional feature extraction which optimizes the pairwise sum of Fisher distances. Biases are eliminated with a premultiplication by the inverse of the analytically derived error matrix. The technique is demonstrated with a numerical example using statistics obtained from an actual Landsat scene. Attention was given to implementation of the Massively Parallel processor (MPP). A timing analysis demonstrates that the inventory estimation can be performed an order of magnitude faster on the MPP than on a conventional serial machine.
Coded representation of time signals--day, hour, minute, second--is changed from binary-coded decimal (BCD) to IRIG standard time-code format B by circuit that uses nine integrated circuits. Input to code-converter circuit is parallel BCD pulses on bus output is serial pulses of IRIG-B on single line.