A federated display system, comprising: a plurality of head down displays, HDD (102,104,106,108), including a first HDD and at least one second HDD; and at least two display processing computers, DPC (110,112), each DPC comprising: a plurality of independent nodes (114,116) including a first node and at least one second node, each independent node including one or more processors comprising one or more of: a processing controller; a graphics generator (124,126) coupled to the processing controller, the graphics generator configured to generate at least one image stream based on external input; and input/output (I/O) control logic (128,130) coupled to the graphics generator and to an external source, the I/O control logic configured to receive the external input from the external source; and characterized by: at least one mezzanine control plane communicatively coupled to each independent node of the plurality of independent nodes, the mezzanine control plane comprising: a plurality of optical channels including at least a first optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the first HDD and at least one second optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the second HDD; and a switching fabric configured to route graphical output from the graphics generator of one of the first node or the at least one second node to the first optical channel and the at least one second optical channel, the switching fabric controllable by either the first node or the at least one second node and including at least one master selector configured to designate one of the first node or the second node as a master node. a plurality of head down displays, HDD (102,104,106,108), including a first HDD and at least one second HDD; and at least two display processing computers, DPC (110,112), each DPC comprising: a plurality of independent nodes (114,116) including a first node and at least one second node, each independent node including one or more processors comprising one or more of: a processing controller; a graphics generator (124,126) coupled to the processing controller, the graphics generator configured to generate at least one image stream based on external input; and input/output (I/O) control logic (128,130) coupled to the graphics generator and to an external source, the I/O control logic configured to receive the external input from the external source; and characterized by: at least one mezzanine control plane communicatively coupled to each independent node of the plurality of independent nodes, the mezzanine control plane comprising: a plurality of optical channels including at least a first optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the first HDD and at least one second optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the second HDD; and a switching fabric configured to route graphical output from the graphics generator of one of the first node or the at least one second node to the first optical channel and the at least one second optical channel, the switching fabric controllable by either the first node or the at least one second node and including at least one master selector configured to designate one of the first node or the second node as a master node. a processing controller; a graphics generator (124,126) coupled to the processing controller, the graphics generator configured to generate at least one image stream based on external input; and input/output (I/O) control logic (128,130) coupled to the graphics generator and to an external source, the I/O control logic configured to receive the external input from the external source; and characterized by: at least one mezzanine control plane communicatively coupled to each independent node of the plurality of independent nodes, the mezzanine control plane comprising: a plurality of optical channels including at least a first optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the first HDD and at least one second optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the second HDD; and a switching fabric configured to route graphical output from the graphics generator of one of the first node or the at least one second node to the first optical channel and the at least one second optical channel, the switching fabric controllable by either the first node or the at least one second node and including at least one master selector configured to designate one of the first node or the second node as a master node. a plurality of optical channels including at least a first optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the first HDD and at least one second optical channel optically coupling the mezzanine control plane to the second HDD; and a switching fabric configured to route graphical output from the graphics generator of one of the first node or the at least one second node to the first optical channel and the at least one second optical channel, the switching fabric controllable by either the first node or the at least one second node and including at least one master selector configured to designate one of the first node or the second node as a master node.