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Pixel-planes 5: a heterogeneous multiprocessor graphics system using processor-enhanced memories

Authors:

Jack Goldfeather,

David Ellsworth,

Laura IsraelAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, Volume 23, Issue 3

Pages 79 - 88

https://doi.org/10.1145/74334.74341

Published: 01 July 1989 Publication History

Abstract

This paper introduces the architecture and initial algorithms for Pixel-Planes 5, a heterogeneous multi-computer designed both for high-speed polygon and sphere rendering (1M Phong-shaded triangles/second) and for supporting algorithm and application research in interactive 3D graphics. Techniques are described for volume rendering at multiple frames per second, font generation directly from conic spline descriptions, and rapid calculation of radiosity form-factors. The hardware consists of up to 32 math-oriented processors, up to 16 rendering units, and a conventional 1280 × 1024-pixel frame buffer, interconnected by a 5 gigabit ring network. Each rendering unit consists of a 128 × 128-pixel array of processors-with-memory with parallel quadratic expression evaluation for every pixel. Implemented on 1.6 micron CMOS chips designed to run at 40MHz, this array has 208 bits/pixel on-chip and is connected to a video RAM memory system that provides 4,096 bits of off-chip memory. Rendering units can be independently reasigned to any part of the screen or to non-screen-oriented computation. As of April 1989, both hardware and software are still under construction, with initial system operation scheduled for fall 1989.

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Index Terms

Pixel-planes 5: a heterogeneous multiprocessor graphics system using processor-enhanced memories

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Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Volume 23, Issue 3

Special issue: Proceedings of the 1989 ACM SIGGRAPH conference

July 1989

367 pages

ISSN:0097-8930

DOI:10.1145/74334

Editor:
Richard J. Beach

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGGRAPH '89: Proceedings of the 16th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
July 1989
408 pages
ISBN:0897913124
DOI:10.1145/74333
Chairman:
James J. Thomas
Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs, Richland, WA

Copyright © 1989 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 01 July 1989

Published in SIGGRAPH Volume 23, Issue 3

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