ITR/SI: Design and Implementation of a Graphics Supercomputer from Commodity Components

该项目将设计和实现一个分布式渲染平台，该平台由现成的商品组件组成，但在大范围内提供实时照片真实感。这种并行渲染系统的灵感来自于普林斯顿大学最近建造的一个类似系统。对这项工作的拟议扩展包括显著扩大规模，新的任务调度算法，新的集成网络设计，将分布式Linux系统中的显卡驱动程序与网络接口卡驱动程序链接起来，以及Keller技术的扩展，称为即时光能传递，以提供实时的全局照明。该平台的设计和实施将为计算机科学研究生在设计大规模分布式处理系统方面提供宝贵的实践经验。由此产生的平台应该成为包括NSF ERC小组在内的几个小组的宝贵研究工具，该小组将使用可视化来探索新纤维和薄膜的产品和工艺设计。该项目构建的广泛可用的开放软件系统的使能代码扩展将通过互联网免费提供。

This project will design and implement a distributed rendering platform that consists of off-the-shelf commodity components, yet delivers real-time photorealism on a large scale. This parallel rendering system was inspired by a similar system recently built at Princeton University. Proposed extensions to that work include a significant expansion in scale, new task-scheduling algorithms, a new integrated network design that links graphics card drivers to network interface card drivers in distributed Linux systems, and an extension of the Keller technique, called instant radiosity, to deliver real-time, global illumination. Design and implementation of the platform should provide graduate students in computer science with valuable hands-on experience in designing large-scale systems for distributed processing. The resulting platform should serve as a valuable research tool for several groups including the NSF ERC group, which will use visualization to explore product and process design for new fibers and films. The enabling code extensions, to widely-available open software systems that this project builds, will be freely available over the Internet.