A multicomputer polygon rendering algorithm for interactive applications

This paper presents a new multicomputer polygon rendering algorithm that is specialized for interactive applications. The algorithm differs from previous algorithms in two ways. First, it load balances the rasterization once per frame, instead of as the frame progresses, using the previous frame's distribution of polygons on the screen as input to the load-balancing algorithm. Second, it uses a new message sending scheme that reduces the number of messages required. These characteristics mean that the algorithm only requires global synchronization between frames, which allows for higher frame rates. The algorithm was selected using a simulator which confirmed that using the previous frame's polygon distribution on the screen is nearly as good as using the current frame's distribution. The algorithm is implemented on Caltech's Intel Touchstone Delta, a 512 processor multicomputer system, and preliminary performance figures are given. The highest performance achieved to date is 930,000 triangles per second using 256 processors and a 806,640 triangle data set.