Evaluating multi-port frame buffer designs for a mesh-connected multicomputer

Gordon Stoll, Bin Wei, Douglas Clark, Edward William Felten, Kai Li, Patrick Hanrahan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Multicomputers can be effectively used for interactive graphics rendering only if there are mechanisms available to rapidly composite and transfer images to an external display device. One method for achieving the necessary bandwidth for this operation is to provide multiple high-bandwidth ports into a frame buffer. In this paper, we evaluate the design space of a multi-port frame buffer design for the Intel Paragon mesh routing network. We use an instrumented rendering system to capture the graphics operations needed for rendering a number of three-dimensional scenes; we then use those workloads as input to test programs running on the Paragon to estimate the performance of our hardware. Our experiments consider three major design questions: how many network ports the frame buffer needs, whether Z-Buffering should be done in hardware on the frame buffer or in software on the computing nodes, and whether the design alternatives are scalable.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationConference Proceedings - Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, ISCA
Pages96-105
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1995
EventProceedings of the 1995 22nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture - Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy
Duration: Jun 22 1995Jun 24 1995

Publication series

NameConference Proceedings - Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, ISCA
ISSN (Print)0884-7495

Other

OtherProceedings of the 1995 22nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture
CitySanta Margherita Ligure, Italy
Period6/22/956/24/95

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Hardware and Architecture

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluating multi-port frame buffer designs for a mesh-connected multicomputer'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this