Signal processing with new processor architectures

This report describes and analyses the consequences of the major transformations that are now taking place in the field of computing, with special emphasis on signal processing for military applications. The introduction of successively increased on-chip parallelism, a growing interest in processing of continuous data streams (sound and video) and an increased focus on power-efficient mobile devices, such as "smart-phones", will have a very positive effect on the possibility of introducing intelligent sensor systems in small, mobile platforms. The signal processing community has a much more extensive experience of programming parallel system than many other fields. Also, it is often comparatively easy to identify and take advantage of parallelism in signal processing algorithms. Therefore, the adjustment to the new heterogeneous parallel computer systems will be less demanding than for other application areas.