Computers: Beyond the supercomputer: NASA is developing ultrafast machines to process satellite data that would choke a mere supercomputer

Computers 1000 times faster than today's fastest supercomputers are needed to process the radar or television pictures satellites will be capable of broadcasting to earth stations in the late 1980s. Computations will be needed on 1013 bits of data every 24 hours — representing at least 500 maps or scenes that satellites will send as they monitor the earth's weather, mineral and water resources, food crops, and atmospheric pollution. The goal, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been attempting to meet since 1971, is to develop a new family of computers: ultrafast image processors that can do up to 1011 operations per second, whereas current computers can do a maximum of 108 such operations. The 1011 operations per second are needed since each picture element (pixel) must be processed at the rate of 102 to 104 operations per second to identify a single map in the required time.