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

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

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.