The Flex architecture, a high speed graphics processor

ABSTRACT

The design of a computer graphics pipeline is examined in detail using high speed floating point multiply/add units and cross bar switches as building blocks. Various parallel and pipelined arrangements are explored for simulating the individual stages of the pipe. It is shown that a highly versatile architecture, entitled the FLEX ARCHITECTURE based on four processors and a 16 port switch, can be used efficiently to simulate all stages of the graphics pipeline and, for high performance systems, multiple flex units are considered. Estimates of performance are developed using a particular set of components available from Texas Instruments. Designs with performance in excess of one to two million vectors per second are feasible.

REFERENCES

• 1: (1) 74ACT8847 MULTIPLIER, ACCUMULATOR product preview, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, 1988.
• 2: (2) SN74ACT8800 FAMILY 32 bit CMOS Processor Building Blocks, publication number SCSS006, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, 1988.
• 3: (3) 74ACT8841 CROSS BAR SWITCH product preview, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, 1988.
• 4: Adam Levinthal , Thomas Porter, Chap - a SIMD graphics processor, ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, v.18 n.3, p.77-82, July 1984
• 5: (5) Page, I. P., A fast clipping algorithm for N dimensions, Technical report #UTDCS 9-88, University of Texas at Dallas.
• 6: James D. Foley , Andries Van Dam, Fundamentals of interactive computer graphics, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1982
• 7: (7) Page, I. P., and Niehaus, J., The design of a high speed graphics processor, Technical report #UTDCS 8-88, University of Texas at Dallas.
• 8: William M. Newman , Robert F. Sproull, Principles of interactive computer graphics (2nd ed.), McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1979

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.1 PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURES
      C.1.2 Multiple Data Stream Architectures (Multiprocessors)
          Subjects: Pipeline processors**

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS

General Terms:
Design, Measurement, Performance