Image Processing BeoWulf Cluster

[Mark Lucas]

ImageLinks ( http://www.imagelinks.com ) has just built our first 
BeoWulf cluster:

12 Single Processor 600Mhz PIII nodes (rack mounted)
384 Meg, 36 gig HD SCSI, single 100BT NIC, switched
Master node is a dual 450 MHz PIII with 512 MB attached to a couple of hundred
gigs in RAID.

We will use the system as a test bed for investigating strategies and 
optimal architectures for image processing in remote sensing.  Dr. 
Salim Mounir AlAoui from Florida Tech has completed the PVM 
modifications for our internal software and will begin to gather 
initial metrics next week.  Initial indications are that we will see 
almost linear scaling, image tiles are parsed to the processors and 
are transformed at the node in a series of extremely CPU intensive 
floating point calculations.  It is our intention to use BeoWulf 
clusters for the satellite and aerial remote sensing processing that 
we perform in our commercial business.

Additionally, we are being partially sponsored by the Federal 
Government to investigate Open Source development methodologies and 
evaluate this architecture for geospatial processing systems.  Those 
efforts can be followed at:

http://www.remotesensing.org/ossim

Open Source Software Image Map (OSSIM), pronounced "awesome" is 
building up state of the art remote sensing open source libraries and 
tools.  We will probably freeze the first alpha release next week, 
the image chain has been wired together.  An initial tool is also 
provided that will demonstrate capabilities.  Loaders, tiling, map 
projections, and basic display are currently implemented.  Salim will 
start wiring in MPI at the tile sequencer as soon as he completes the 
initial metric runs on our internal software.

As we move forward we want to wire BeoWulf support into the libraries 
and evaluate optimal architectures for this class of problems.


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Mark R Lucas
Chief Technical Officer
ImageLinks Inc.
4450 W Eau Gallie Blvd
Suite 164
Melbourne Fl 32934

321 253 0011 (work)
321 253 5559 (fax)

mlucas at imagelinks.com
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