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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / SEPTEMBER 29, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 39
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Breaking News - Operating Systems
& Middleware:
Mercury Delivers First DRI
Standard Middleware Implementation
Mercury Computer Systems Inc announced that it has shipped the industry's
first middleware product that includes the new Data Reorganization Interface
(DRI) standard application programming interface (API). The DRI standard
enables easier development of digital signal and image processing applications
for multiprocessor computers. Traditional multiprocessor communication
middleware typically falls short of providing both high performance and
productivity for real-time sensor data processing. By incorporating the DRI
interface into its industry-leading PAS multiprocessor middleware, Mercury
enables users to maximize their use of industry standards while still meeting
program requirements for performance, functionality, and productivity. DRI is
a software interface for performing data-parallel distribution and
reorganization operations on N-dimensional data such as distributed matrix
transpositions and reshaping. These operations are essential in scalable,
high-performance embedded applications such as adaptive beamforming,
space-time adaptive processing (STAP) radar, and synthetic aperture radar
(SAR). The DRI interface hides the complexity of interprocessor communication
and synchronization when implementing these advanced algorithms on a
multicomputer.
"Mercury's leadership in the creation of the DRI specification provided the
focus to achieve both productivity and portability without sacrificing
performance," said Craig Lund, chief technology officer at Mercury. "Aimed
squarely at multiprocessor image and signal processing, DRI requires little
compromise traditionally associated with standards. Mercury's implementation
enables application developers to leverage DRI for full performance of the
hardware communication fabric."
Mercury's Parallel Acceleration System (PAS) with DRI delivers high
performance with a standard API. The combination of PAS and DRI gives users a
high-performance multiprocessor communication library, built-in data
reorganization, and multi-buffered data movement or channels. The DRI channel
implementation exploits Mercury RACE++ and RapidIO switch fabric interconnect
hardware to overlap communication and computation, increasing application
performance.
Applications using PAS with DRI can interoperate effectively with Message
Passing Interface (MPI), the standard API for inter-process communication
often used for scientific computing applications. PAS with DRI also supports
flexible use of both standard DRI and native PAS interfaces for applications
that require communication support beyond that specified in DRI (e.g., for I/O
device integration or supporting highly dynamic application mode changes).
These features provide users the flexibility to maximize their use of industry
standards, even when additional functionality is required to meet the needs of
complex, real-time applications.
The Data Reorganization Forum, established with funding by the DARPA
Information Technology Office, developed the Data Reorganization Interface.
The DRI-1.0 API was ratified and published in September 2002 by the Data
Reorganization Forum and can be accessed on the Web at
www.data-re.org.
PAS with DRI is available immediately for use with the Mercury MCOE 6.0
software release.
For additional information, visit Mercury's Web site at
www.mc.com/search/productslevel3.cfm?id=22&pid=12&category=Software.
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