Parallel architecture for conversion of NURBS curves to Be/spl acute/zier curves

Abstract

NURBS are one of the most common methods of representing curves and surfaces in the geometric modeling and computer graphics fields, whilst numerous computer graphics algorithms are based on the utilization of a simpler representation of the same curves and surfaces: Be/spl acute/zier representations. In this paper, we present a parallel architecture to perform the decomposition of a NURBS curve into its constituent Be/spl acute/zier polynomial pieces. This architecture presents a regular and easily scalable structure, suitable for VLSI implementation, which can be efficiently exploited for the decomposition process. The performance of the proposed architecture is improved by the use of carry-save arithmetic, which permits the reduction of the system cycle time.