Real-time ESM signal processing with transputers

Electronic support measures (ESM) equipment is tasked with the functions of detection, characterisation and identification of radar emissions in the electromagnetic environment. This environment may contain radar pulse densities in the region of one million pulses per second. These will consist of true emissions intercepted directly from radars along with numerous spurious and corrupted pulses, such as reflections from the sea surface. Signals incident on the ESM antenna will vary greatly in amplitude, with own ship radars all but swamping emissions from distant low power emitters. In this environment, an ESM processor has a demanding task. Besides meeting the data throughput requirement, the reporting latency must be minimal. The processor must be implemented in a flexible, modular architecture to enable algorithms to be upgraded in the field to meet any changes in the threat environment. In an attempt to overcome these and other problems, the Admiralty Research Establishment (ARE) has been pursuing a research program which aims to apply parallel processing techniques to the ESM signal processing task. Transputer technology offers the potential for designing signal processors which can efficiently utilise the processing power of many CPUs. Two projects, initiated by ARE, are worthy of particular note and serve to illustrate the role that transputers may play in future ESM processing. Both projects involve the porting of ARE research software onto a Meiko Computing Surface, which is populated with 69 T800-20 transputers