학술논문

Deep view: high-resolution reality
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications IEEE Comput. Grap. Appl. Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE. 22(3):12-15 Jun, 2002
Subject
Computing and Processing
General Topics for Engineers
Page description languages
Computational geometry
Rendering (computer graphics)
Visualization
Linux
Computer displays
Three dimensional displays
Two dimensional displays
Acceleration
Graphics
Language
ISSN
0272-1716
1558-1756
Abstract
We have designed the Deep View visualization system, which consists of a Linux cluster that performs computations to produce 3D geometry, renders the geometry to produce 2D pixels, and then transfers the pixels to be displayed on the T221 display (or video wall). We accelerate the pixel transfer operations using IBM's Scalable Graphics Engine (SGE). We drive high-resolution displays at interactive frame rates using our cluster and the SGE. The SGE is a network-attached frame buffer capable of double buffering up to 16 million pixels. It routes incoming pixels from multiple sources to the appropriate locations in its frame buffer and then transfers the composited result to the T221 display using digital video interface (DVI) output. In total, the SGE can accept up to 16 input links and can drive as many as eight synchronized DVI outputs. In addition, it can time interleave image pairs from its frame buffer to effect time-division stereo. In the current Deep View configuration, the rendered pixels are sent by each node in the cluster to the SGE over a Gigabit Ethernet link, and we use four of the synchronized DVI outputs to drive the T221 at full resolution.