Deep view: high-resolution reality

• Published in: IEEE computer graphics and applications Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 12 - 15
• Main Authors: Klosowski, J.T., Kirchner, P.D., Valuyeva, J., Abram, G., Morris, C.J., Wolfe, R.H., Jackman, T.
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Alamitos IEEE 01.05.2002; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acceleration; Buffers; Clusters; Computational geometry; Computer displays; Computer graphics; Frames; Graphics; Links; Linux; Page description languages; Pixels; Rendering (computer graphics); Three dimensional; Three dimensional displays; Two dimensional displays; Visualization; Walls
• ISSN: 0272-1716; 1558-1756
• DOI: 10.1109/MCG.2002.999782

We have designed the Deep View visualization system, which consists of a Linux cluster that performs computations to produce 3D geometry, renders the geometry to produce 2D pixels, and then transfers the pixels to be displayed on the T221 display (or video wall). We accelerate the pixel transfer operations using IBM's Scalable Graphics Engine (SGE). We drive high-resolution displays at interactive frame rates using our cluster and the SGE. The SGE is a network-attached frame buffer capable of double buffering up to 16 million pixels. It routes incoming pixels from multiple sources to the appropriate locations in its frame buffer and then transfers the composited result to the T221 display using digital video interface (DVI) output. In total, the SGE can accept up to 16 input links and can drive as many as eight synchronized DVI outputs. In addition, it can time interleave image pairs from its frame buffer to effect time-division stereo. In the current Deep View configuration, the rendered pixels are sent by each node in the cluster to the SGE over a Gigabit Ethernet link, and we use four of the synchronized DVI outputs to drive the T221 at full resolution.