To accelerate the reconstruction and visualization of medical
imaging data for medical OEMs by leveraging the
IBM/Toshiba/Sony-developed Cell Broadband Engine (BE) processor,
US-based Mercury Computer Systems, a provider of computing systems
and software for data-intensive applications is teaming with the
Institute of Medical Physics (IMP) of Erlangen, Germany.
Under terms of an agreement, Mercury and IMP are designing and
implementing reconstruction and visualisation algorithms with
real-time performance on the Cell BE processor, aimed at delivering
significant performance increases while also reducing the
complexity and costs of medical image processing systems, the
companies said.
Mercury says it will integrate IMP technology with its own
algorithms into high-performance Cell BE processor- based systems.
Preliminary results show a 100x improvement in computed tomography
(CT) reconstruction, the companies report.
Medical image reconstruction, such as that found in CT,
tomosynthesis, PET and SPECT, is computationally demanding and as
such, advances in medical sensor technology have created an
increasing number of images per procedure, posing a tremendous
challenge for processing and visualization in a timely manner that
is compatible with the hospital workflow, the companies
explained.
As example of the joint work, Mercury and the IMP have developed a
Cell BE processor-based solution capable of performing modern CT
reconstruction more than 100 times faster than conventional
microprocessors.
The level of parallelism along with the I/O capabilities permits
the Cell BE processor to implement complex CT reconstruction
algorithms at close to real-time performance. The Cell BE processor
enables system design in which the radiologist can view images
obtained from better algorithms, with higher quality, much sooner
than ever before.
Marc Kachelriess, professor of medical imaging at the IMP
explained: “With Cell technology, advanced approaches thought to be
too demanding in terms of processing can now enter daily routine.
The tremendous processing power of the Cell BE processor enables
the use of iterative reconstruction algorithms designed for the
reduction of beam hardening and metal artifacts. Analytical and
statistical CT reconstruction algorithms that allow for enhanced
image quality, while keeping the X-ray exposure of the patient as
low as possible, can also be implemented on a Cell BE
processor-based platform.”
The Cell BE processor contains eight synergistic processing
elements meant to provide unmatched performance levels in many
computationally intense applications at peak performance in excess
of 180 GFLOPS -- which equates to 180 billion floating-point
operations per second and an amazing 25Gbyte/s memory
bandwidth.
Mercury has a multi-year agreement with IBM to deploy the
revolutionary Cell BE processor in computer systems for defence,
life sciences, seismic, and industrial applications, and offers the
technology to medical OEMs via the Cell Acceleration Board (CAB) --
a PCI Express accelerator card based on the Cell BE processor --
along with algorithms, and multicore and multicomputer programming
expertise.
Mercury is also expected to make an announcement with EDA
provider Mentor Graphics Corp. later this month.