SETI SIGNAL DETECTOR

A SPECIAL COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE FOR SIGNAL DETECTION AND PATTERN RECOGNITION IS PROPOSED AS A SOLUTION TO THE SETI SIGNAL DETECTION PROBLEM. THE ARCHITECTURE FEATURES A NEW CONCEPT IN THE DESIGN OF CONTENT ADDRESSABLE MEMORIES (CAM). THIS CAM WILL FUNCTION AS THE HEART OF A NOVEL ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSOR THAT EFFICIENTLY EXECUTES THE SETI PATTERN RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS. THE CAM ARCHITECTURE USES HIGHLY PARALLEL AND DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING IN A CUSTOM VLSI IMPLEMENTATION TO SUPPORT QUERY DIRECTED, ASSOCIATIVE COMPUTATION. THE SETI APPROACH FOR FINDING EXTRATERRESTRIAL ARTIFICIAL SIGNALS INVOLVES THE DETECTION OF PATTERNS OF WEAK NARROW BAND SIGNALS AMONG A LARGE NUMBER OF NOISY NARROWBAND CHANNELS. THE PATTERNS OF INTEREST ARE EITHER CONTINUOUS WAVE, OR PULSE MODULATED SIGNALS THAT MAY DRIFT SLOWLY IN FREQUENCY. THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSOR PROPOSED HERE SUCCESSFULLY RECOGNIZES THESE PATTERNS OF ARTIFICIAL SIGNALS OBSCURED BY NOISE, AND REPLACES ALL COMPETING ALTERNATIVES IN PERFORMANCE, SIZE AND COST. FABRICATION OF LARGE-SCALE SETI SYSTEMS, SUCH AS 500 MILLION CHANNEL SPECTROMETERS, NOW BECOMES PRACTICAL WHEN THE DESIGN EMPLOYS THIS NEW CONCEPT IN ASSOCIATIVE COMPUTATION.