VLSI COMPUTER CHIPS FOR REAL-TIME 3D MORPHOLOGY/IMAGING

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The use of the proposed 3D VLSI chip has been refocused on that area of medical image analysis and display where its software emulator, the Triakis software package developed by KSC, has proven most useful, i.e., in the 3D analysis and display of 3D tissue structures in experimental histopathology. A specific example is provided relating to the 3D reconstruction of the human renal glomerulus from serial sections of renal tissue. Furthermore, the advantage of an accelerator board based on the proposed 3D VLSI chip is demonstrated by calculations showing that the one- hour computation time required to reconstruct the glomerulus would be reduced to a few seconds by use of a single-3D-VLSI-chip accelerator board; one second, for a two-chip board. At less than $100 per chip and less than $1000 per board, it is shown that an Apple computer with such a board installed would place on the users desktop a workstation at about $5,000 total cost for 3D analysis and display significantly faster than a Cray Y- MP supercomputer. This workstation would be tens of thousands times more cost effective. Calculations indicate that a 1000-fold acceleration over our existing software emulator would be achieved by an Apple-based or PC- based accelerator board using this chip.