Patent ID: 7076390

Claim:
An inspection system for detecting anomalies on a substrate, the inspection system comprising: a sensor array for generating image data, a first high speed network coupled to the sensor array and adapted to receive and communicate the image data, an array of process nodes coupled to the first high speed network and adapted to receive and process the image data to produce anomaly reports, each process node having, an interface card coupled to the first high speed network and adapted to receive the image data from the first high speed network and format the image data according to a high speed interface bus protocol, a high speed interface bus coupled to the interface card and adapted to receive the image data from the interface card, and a computer coupled to the high speed interface bus and adapted to receive the image data from the high speed interface bus and process the image data according to an algorithm to produce the anomaly report, wherein each process node includes an amount of memory that is sufficient to buffer the image data that it receives until it can process the image data that it receives, a second high speed network coupled to the process nodes and adapted to receive the anomaly reports from the process nodes, and a job manager coupled to the second high speed network and adapted to receive the anomaly reports from the process nodes and send information to the process nodes to coordinate the processing of the image data in the array of process nodes.