An efficient data-parallel architecture for volume rendering

We present the bottlenecks involved in the real time visualization of volumetric data using a volume rendering technique. Unlike the current trend of best-fitting the algorithm to a fixed architecture, we analyzed the performance of our architecture independent algorithm over a wide range of data parallel architectures using dpsim-a data parallel simulator. The result led to a best-fit architecture that meets the “near” real time requirements. We chose the data parallel paradigm because of the overall simplicity it offers, and because is expected to be a component in the next generation of high end workstations