A nano-scale architecture for constant time image processing

In this paper, we study a nano‐scale highly parallel computing architecture for image processing: a reconfigurable mesh that is interconnected with ferromagnetic spin‐wave buses. In this architecture, information is encoded into the phase of the spin‐wave, and interommunications are performed without any charge transfer. This spin‐wave reconfigurable mesh, while requiring the same number of switches as standard reconfigurable mesh, is capable of simultaneously transmitting multiple waves on each of the spin‐wave paths using different frequencies. Moreover, in this architecture, the superposition characteristic of spin‐waves allows concurrent writes if all the requesting processors write a “1”. Employing these parallel features, we present three constant time image processing applications for this architecture. We show that given an N1/2 × N1/2 image, using a N × N spin‐wave reconfigurable mesh, in constant time, all figures. can be labelled, and the nearest neighbour, and the convex hull of a single figure can be found. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)