next-generation visual supercomputing using pc clusters with volume graphics hardware devices
To seek a low-cost, extensible solution for the large-scale data visualization problem, a visual computing system is designed as a result of a collaboration between industry and government research laboratories in Japan, also with participation by researchers in U.S. This scalable system is a commodity PC cluster equipped with the VolumePro 500 volume graphics cards and a specially designed image compositing hardware. Our performance study shows such a system is capable of interactive rendering 512 3 and 1024 3 volume data and highly scalable. In particular, with such a system, simulation and visualization can be performed concurrently which allows scientists to monitor and tune their simulations on the fly. In this paper, both the system and hardware designs are presented.
visualization graphics hardware scalable systems volume rendering high performance i/o distributed computing systems parallel rendering