SHADING ENGINE - A LOW COST PARALLEL PROCESSOR FOR RENDERING HIGH QUALITY COLOR IMAGES IN GRAPHICS WORKSTATIONS.

Abstract

The initial design of a low-cost parallel processor for performing graphics algorithms on a scanline-by-scanline basis is described. The parallel processor was used to implement a scanline hidden surface algorithm with complex shading of visible surfaces and anti-aliasing of edges. The system consists of several identical signal processor chips with small local memories controlled by a master processor which shares its memory with the workstation host. The slave processors are assigned to disjoint screen extents divided along the direction of the scan, and independently render a scanline within their extents. The master processor precomputes data needed by the slaves. A system containing 6 slave processors fits onto just two 4-in multiplied by 13-in PC cards and has a peak performance of 34 MIPS.