“WireGL: a scalable graphics system for clusters” by Humphreys, Eldridge, Buck, Stoll, Everett, et al. …

  • ©

Conference:


Type(s):


Title:

    WireGL: a scalable graphics system for clusters

Presenter(s)/Author(s):


Abstract:


    We describe WireGL, a system for scalable interactive rendering on a cluster of workstations. WireGL provides the familiar OpenGL API to each node in a cluster, virtualizing multiple graphics accelerators into a sort-first parallel renderer with a parallel interface. We also describe techniques for reassembling an output image from a set of tiles distributed over a cluster. Using flexible display management, WireGL can drive a variety of output devices, from standalone displays to tiled display walls. By combining the power of virtual graphics, the familiarity and ordered semantics of OpenGL, and the scalability of clusters, we are able to create time-varying visualizations that sustain rendering performance over 70,000,000 triangles per second at interactive refresh rates using 16 compute nodes and 16 rendering nodes.

References:


    1. W. Blanke, C. Bajaj, D. Fussel, and X. Zhang. The Metabuffer: A Scalable Multiresolution Multidisplay 3-D Graphics System Using Commodity Rendering Engines. TR2000-16, University of Texas at Austin, February 2000.
    2. N. Boden, D. Cohen, R. Felderman, A. Kulawik, C. Seitz, J. Seizovic, and W. Su. Myrinet: A Gigabit-per-second Local Area Network. IEEE Micro, pages 29-36, February 1995.
    3. I. Buck, G. Humphreys, and P. Hanrahan. Tracking Graphics State for Networked Rendering. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware, August 2000.
    4. R. Cunniff. visualize fx Graphics Scalable Architecture. Proceedings of Eurographics/SIGGRAPH Hot3D, pages 29-38, August 2000.
    5. Digital Visual Interface Specification. http://www.ddwg.org.
    6. M. Eldridge, H. Igehy, and P. Hanrahan. Pomegranate: A Fully Scalable Graphics Architecture. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2000, pages 443-454, July 2000.
    7. H. Fuchs, J. Poulton, J. Eyles, T. Greer, H. Goldfeather, D. Ellsworth, S. Molnar, G. Turk, B. Tebbs, and L. Israel. Pixel-Planes 5: A Heterogeneous Multiprocessor Graphics System Using Processor-Enhanced Memories. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 89, pages 79-88, July 1989.
    8. P. D. Heermann. Production Visualization for the ASCI One TeraFLOPS Machine. Proceedings of IEEE Visualization, pages 459-462, October 1998.
    9. A. Heirich and L. Moll. Scalable Distributed Visualization Using Off-the-Shelf Components. IEEE Parallel Visualization and Graphics Symposium, pages 55-59, October 1999.
    10. G. Humphreys, I. Buck, M. Eldridge, and P. Hanrahan. Distributed Rendering for Scalable Displays. IEEE Supercomputing 2000, October 2000.
    11. H. Igehy, M. Eldridge, and P. Hanrahan. Parallel Texture Caching. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH / Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware, pages 95-106, August 1999.
    12. H. Igehy, G. Stoll, and P. Hanrahan. The Design of a Parallel Graphics Interface. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 98, pages 141-150, July 1998.
    13. M. Kilgard. GLR, an OpenGL Render Server Facility. Proceedings of X Technical Conference, February 1996.
    14. M. Levoy, K. Pulli, B. Curless, S. Rusinkiewicz, D. Koller, L. Pereira, M. Ginzton, S. Anderson, J. Davis, J. Ginsberg, J. Shade, and D. Fulk. The Digital Michelangelo Project: 3D Scanning of Large Statues. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2000, pages 131-144, July 2000.
    15. W. E. Lorensen and H. E. Cline. Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Algorithm. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 87, pages 163-169, July 1987.
    16. S. Molnar, M. Cox, D. Ellsworth, and H. Fuchs. A Sorting Classification of Parallel Rendering. IEEE Computer Graphics and Algorithms, pages 23-32, July 1994.
    17. S. Molnar, J. Eyles, and J. Poulton. PixelFlow: High-Speed Rendering Using Image Composition. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 92, pages 231-240, August 1992.
    18. J. Montrym, D. Baum, D. Dignam, and C. Migdal. InfiniteReality: A Real-Time Graphics System. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 97, pages 293-302, August 1997.
    19. C. Mueller. The Sort-First Rendering Architecture for High-Performance Graphics. 1995 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, pages 75-84, April 1995.
    20. OpenGL Specifications. http://www.opengl.org/Documentation/Specs.html.
    21. W. C. Reynolds and M. Fatica. Stanford Center for Integrated Turbulence Simulations. IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering, pages 54-63, April 2000.
    22. J. Rohlf and J. Helman. IRIS Performer: A High Performance Multiprocessing Toolkit for Real-Time 3D Graphics. In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 94, pages 381-395, July 1994.
    23. R. Samanta, T. Funkhouser, K. Li, and J. P. Singh. Sort-First Parallel Rendering with a Cluster of PCs. SIGGRAPH 2000 Technical Sketch, August 2000.
    24. R. Samanta, J. Zheng, T. Funkhouser, K. Li, and J. P. Singh. Load Balancing for Multi-Projector Rendering Systems. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware, pages 107-116, August 1999.
    25. SGI multipipe. http://www.sgi.com/software/multipipe/.
    26. SGI vizserver. http://www.sgi.com/software/vizserver/.
    27. G. Stoll, M. Eldridge, D. Patterson, A. Webb, S. Berman, R. Levy, C. Caywood, M. Taveira, S. Hunt, and P. Hanrahan. Lightning-2: A High-Performance Display Subsystem for PC Clusters. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2001, August 2001.

ACM Digital Library Publication:


Overview Page: