Overview System Requirements
eCognition is a comprehensive image analysis platform for multi-dimensional image analysis. It contains all the client and server software needed to extract intelligence from any digital image in a fully-automated or semi-automated way.
The client software is role-based and supports the needs and skills of different users in an organization. The server software, known as the eCognition Server, is a processing environment that allows the batch processing of jobs and is hugely scalable, capable of handling tens, hundreds or many thousands of images in a single job.
Client Software
eCognition Developer
eCognition Developer is a powerful and completely integrated environment designed for image analysis specialists to develop, test and package new image analysis applications. eCognition Developer can be used as a standalone tool or in combination with the eCognition Server.
eCognition Developer incorporates the latest generation of Trimble Cognition Network Technology®, enabling the creation of new solutions for multidimensional image analysis applications. It incorporates a new programming paradigm, high-performance analysis for complex multidimensional data and sophisticated viewing, visualization and registration capabilities.
eCognition Architect
eCognition Architect is an intuitive end-user tool used to configure and execute image analysis applications. It provides support for fully automated or semi-automated workflows and guides users through the application they are running. eCognition Architect incorporates all the required tools for users to import, view and visualize multidimensional images and results.
Server Software
eCognition Server
The eCognition Server provides a processing environment for the batch execution of image analysis using a high-performance computing environment. All supported connectors and drivers are described in a separate document called “Supported Connectors and Drivers”.
Image Proxy Server
The Image Proxy Server (IPS) is a software component running on Microsoft Windows that provides high-performance image access and caching. A local IPS is installed automatically with each Trimble client.
The key functionality provided by the IPS includes:
- Delivering Windows-only file formats to eCognition Linux Servers (requires one Windows server)
- Creating and delivering zoom pyramids for large images
- Creating and delivering thumbnail caches for workspaces
- Creating and delivering an image statistics cache
- Creating and delivering cached zoom pyramids for thematic layers
- Creating and delivering cached raster representations of vector files
Data Storage and Cache Management
The Image Proxy Server creates and manages cache data, which can be stored in a sub folder with the original data or in a centralized repository connected to the Image Proxy Server (local storage or NAS). This cache can be sized appropriately for your environment. It uses a combination of maximum size, FIFO and minimum and maximum retention times. This caching can also be turned off by updating the default configuration.
License Server
Trimble software is soft license-protected using FlexNet Licensing Technology from Flexera Software. The License Server is used to provide the available licenses to the software and can be used locally on a single machine or in a network environment.
You must install the License Server before installing other Trimble software. It can be run on any machine within the network that is constantly available.
Hardware Platforms
All Trimble products require an Intel x86_64 hardware platform (64 bit).
Operating Systems
Trimble software has been validated for the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows Client Operating Systems for eCognition Developer & Architect
- Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit)
- Microsoft Windows 11 (64 bit)
Microsoft Windows Server Operating Systems for eCognition Developer and Architect
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Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (64 Bit) Standard Edition
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Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64 Bit) Standard Edition
Linux Server Operating Systems for eCognition
Pre-requisite libraries are required for each specific Linux distribution. These are documented in Detailed System Requirements for Linux Systems.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15
- CentOS 8
Requirements for Graphics Cards / GPU
Graphics Cards / GPU for 3D Rendering
Trimble clients allow the display and analysis of a variety data types. Some features need an OpenGL capable graphics card:
- To properly display 3D analysis results, an OpenGL capable graphics card is required
- To render *.las files (point clouds) in the 3D viewer you also need to install an up-to-date OpenGL compatible graphics card driver
To update your graphics card driver to the current version select for example the Device Manager in the Windows Control Panel. In the section Display adapters select your graphics card and navigate to the tab Driver where you can select update driver. Technical details and update executables can also be found on the websites of the respective graphics card provider. To check the OpenGL version installed on your machine you can also install an OpenGL viewer for example http://download.cnet.com/OpenGL-Extensions-Viewer/3000-18487_4-34442.html or http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/ A dedicated OpenGL capable desktop graphics card from NVIDIA is highly recommended.
Graphics Cards / GPU forTensorFlow Convolutional Neural Networks / Deep learning
The following requirements have to be fulfilled if you want to use eCognition‘s Convolutional Neural Networks / Deep learning Processing which is based on the TensorFlow® library:
- NVIDIA Graphics Card with compute capability 5.0 or higher
The following NVIDIA® software must be installed on your system:
- NVIDIA® GPU drivers - version 450.80.02 or higher
For details see: https://www.tensorflow.org/install/gpu
Multiple Graphics Cards
eCognition is only able to use a single GPU per instance. Multiple GPUs are only recommended if you run multiple eCognition instances in parallel.
System Requirements
eCognition Developer / Server / Architect
Memory
- Minimum: 4 GB DDR-RAM
- Recommended: 16 GB DDR-RAM
- Optimal: 32 GB or more
Storage Space
- Minimum: 50 GB S-ATA Drive
- Recommended: 200 GB SSD-Drive
- Optimal: 512GB SSD or more
Display
- Minimum: Full HD Display (1920x1080)
- Recommended: 4 K Display (3840x2160)
eCognitions user interface (desktop client) is optimized for certain screen resolutions and text sizes (Windows operating systems):
- resolution 1920x1080 and text size 100%
- resolution 3840x2160 and text sizes 150%, 200% and 250%
For other resolutions / text sizes, window sizes / toolbar layout may need to be adjusted and saved in eCognition > View > Save Current View.
Operating Systems
All validated Microsoft Windows client operating systems can be used, see Microsoft Windows Client Operating Systems for eCognition Developer & Architect .
eCognition Server
eCognition Server is a scalable computing infrastructure that may be installed on one or more machines in your network.
Image Proxy Server
The Image Proxy Server (IPS) software provides high-performance image access and image caching services. IPS software is installed by default with each client and is also installed as a server to support image access form processing nodes and centralized cache services to clients..
Server Deployment
The Image Proxy Server is responsible for both serving image data but also creating necessary cache data to provide high-performance access.
Cache Processing
The IPS can use the facilities of the existing eCognition Server processing nodes to offload the cache creation processing, which reduces the processing load on the image server . On Linux, this offloading of processing to the eCognition Server is dependent on having all the image drivers you wish to use available natively on Linux. Please see the Supported Connectors and Drivers documentation for details of which drivers are available for which operating system.
Storage Architecture
The choice of storage architecture for image cache data also affects the amount of storage space required for the Image Proxy Server. The default option is to use decentralized storage.
- Decentralized – cache data is stored along side the original image data
- Centralized – cache data is stored in a centralized location
License Server
The License Server software provides software licenses to all Trimble products. It can be installed on any machine that is reliably available within the network domain that is used to operate the Trimble software.
Hardware Requirements
- Dual core CPU
- 4 GB DDR-RAM
Operating Systems
- All validated Microsoft Windows operating systems (see Microsoft Windows Client Operating Systems for eCognition Developer & Architect )
- All validated Linux operating systems (see Linux Server Operating Systems for eCognition)