The Matisse project aims to create a distributed information system that will link MEMS research centers, fabrication sites, and specialized equipment with advanced computing and storage resources via DARPA's Supernet. The system architecture is based on a general model for supporting distributed applications that generate massive amounts of data which must be stored, retrieved, processed and visualized. For collaborative experimentation, data must be communicated and processed online at very high rates. Currently five sites (ISI, LBNL, CMU, UCB and MIT) inter-communicate at speeds up to 2.5 Gbps. MEMS researchers will be able to inspect devices during fabrication, to view test results in real-time, and to perform specialized processing and visualization of test data.
We will describe the system architecture of Matisse. This will include research on distributed filesystems, cluster-based visualization algorithms and high performance networking. Further, we will discuss our model for supporting collaborative experimentation and session management. This will cover authentication, dynamic client and server distribution, and automatic updates. Some preliminary results will also be presented.
Nikhil Gagvani heads the Interactive Graphics group at Sarnoff Corporation. He has a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Rutgers University, and a B.Tech degree in Aerospace Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, India. Nikhil's research interests include computer graphics, visualization, computer vision and networking. His research at Rutgers focused in skeletal models of 3D shapes, and their applications in medical visualization, collision detection and animation. At Sarnoff, he has worked on information visualization for scientific, military and intelligence applications.
Derek Viljoen is a member of the technical staff at Sarnoff Corporation. Derek has over 10 years of experience in distributed software development. He designed and implemented the first commercial version of the CORBA notification service for NEC. At Sarnoff, he has architected and implemented collaborative visualization software for scientific and military applications.