Parallel volume visualization on a hypercube architecture

Abstract

A parallel solution to the visualiaation of high resolution uolume data is presented. Baaed on the ray tracing (RT) uiaualization technique, the system works on a distributed memory MIMD architecture. A hybrid strategy to my tracing parallelitation is applied, using ray-dataflow within an image partition approach. This strategy allows the flexible and efiectiue management of huge dataset on architectures with limited local memory. The dataaet is distributed over the nodes using a slice-partitioning technique. The simple data partition chosen implies a atraighforward communications pattern of the visualization processes and this improves both software design and eficiency, while providing deadlock prevention. The partitioning technique used and the network interconnection topology allow for the efjicient implementation of a statical load balancing technique through pre-rendering of a low resolution image. Details related to the practical issues involved in the parallelitation of volumetric RT are discussed, with particular reference to deadlock and termination issues.