The Architecture of A Flexible Supercomputer Integrating A Realtime Visualization Mechanism with 3-Dimensional Memories

在94年研究成果的基础上，我们研制了一个用于体绘制的并行计算机Revolver/C40。该并行计算机的特点是实时处理、透视绘制、半透明物体绘制和体光线跟踪。ReVolver/C40由3阶段宏流水线、光线投射、像素计算和明暗处理组成。每个阶段通过并行处理细粒度流水线处理来高速渲染，具体取决于其处理形式。性能受像素计算阶段的限制。光线交叉的所有体素是否都能被读取是特别重要的。因此，Revolver/C40采用三倍体积存储，并在光线主轴方向上采样体素的方案。在像素计算级由128片数字信号处理器(TMS320C40，50 MHz)组成的情况下，从印制电路板设计点的设计数据出发，渲染速度为2.5帧/秒。左轮手枪/C40由于其可扩展的配置，可以与多个DSP成比例地加速。另一方面，作为左轮手枪/C40的心脏的三重存储器解决了其体积大的问题。因此，我们还设计了一个单一的存储器配置，它也可以在光线上并行访问体素。它是通过将视场角度限制在54ﾟ来实现的，这是因为科学计算或医学视觉的结果不需要很大的视场。

We produced a prototype of ReVolver/C40, a parallel computer for volume rendering, following the research result of '94.The caharacteristic functions of ReVolver/C40 are realtime processing, perspective drawing, rendering of translucnet objects, and volume ray-tracing.ReVolver/C40 is consisted of macro-pipeline of 3-stages, ray-casting, pixel-calculation, and shading. Each stage render at high-speed by parallel processing of fine-grained pipeline processing depending on its form of processing. The performance is bounded by the pixel calculation stage. It is especially significant whether all the voxels crossed by a ray can be read or not. So, ReVolver/C40 adopts the triple volume memory, and the scheme to sample voxels in the direction of the main axis of a ray. This enables parallel volume access to any ray of arbitrary direction.From the design data at the point of PCB design, the rendering speed is 2.5 frames per second, in the case that the pixel calculation stage is consisted of 128 DSPs (TMS320C40,50MHz) . ReVolver/C40 can speeds up in proportion to a number of DSPs because of its scalable configuration.On the other hand, triple memory, the heart of ReVolver/C40, hold the problem about its big size. So, we also designed a single memory configuration which also enables parallel voxel access on a ray. It is achieved by limtting the angle of the viewing field to 54ﾟ.It is available because the result of scientific calculation or medical vision do not need a wide viewing field.