Astronautic Technology Sdn Bhd selected a wide range of high-performance compute and storage technology from SGI. The SGI-powered real-time data processing system was installed in July in preparation for the launch of the RazakSAT spacecraft. The RazakSAT satellite will be operated through its ground station in Malaysia, consisting of a Mission Control Station and Image Receiving and Processing Station, where the SGI systems are housed. ATSB's engineers are operators at the MCS and will execute RazakSAT's mission plan, command generation and telemetry receiving, archiving and analysis.
Shamsulazwan Samsuddin, Spacecraft Engineer, Astronautic Technology noted: "The power of SGI Altix global shared-memory architecture is ideal for the data processing needs of high-resolution Earth imagery satellite data. By providing 64-bit processing power to model the sensors and re-sample all this data onto a geographic system, SGI technology optimizes our application performance and interactivity for image manipulation and delivers real-time visualization with large models and enormous data sets."
Currently, Malaysian agencies requiring satellite imagery rely upon image data and information provided by satellites manufactured and operated by foreign companies. Malaysia's own satellite is a highly specialized payload requiring high performance ground ingest and processing capabilities that will provide specific and timely data for its users in Malaysia as well as catering to the needs of other countries located on the equatorial belt.
Using the SGI real-time image and data processing system, which includes an SGI Altix 350 server running Oracle as the database for their image processing application, the IRPS will receive images for archive, post-processing and distribution. Due to the orbit in which these satellites are located, the images provided are neither timely enough nor do they cater to Malaysia's specific uses and needs.
The SGI system receiving and processing satellite image data in real time was developed to provide not only highly accurate image products but also systematic and automatic operation. The system is designed for multi-satellite data handling capability. ATSB selected SGI in part because of SGI's history of powering and optimizing satellite ground stations and easily expandable architecture, which includes 2TB of SGI InfiniteStorage that can grow with image and data requirements.
"Astronautic Technology researched other vendors and determined SGI delivered the bandwidth, compute power, and real-time performance necessary to process large data sets from Malaysia's first Earth-observation satellite. SGI systems for satellite image processing are the choice of many government operations and universities throughout the world for their performance, reliability and security," said Nicholas K. C. Low, Country Sales Manager, Silicon Graphics Sdn. Bhd, SGI's operating subsidiary.
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