db_connect: Could not connect to paper db at "wotug@dragon.kent.ac.uk"
db_connect: Could not connect to paper db at "wotug@dragon.kent.ac.uk"
%T Parallel Scan Line algorithm for Hidden Surface Elimination
db_connect: Could not connect to paper db at "wotug@dragon.kent.ac.uk"
%A Julian C. Highfield
db_connect: Could not connect to paper db at "wotug@dragon.kent.ac.uk"
%E Janet Edwards
%B Proceedings of WoTUG\-14: Occam and the Transputer\-Current Developments
%X With the general availability of general purpose parallel
computers, there is a need to reconsider scan conversion
algorithms with respect to their parallel implementation.
This paper considers MIMD parallel implementation of two
versions of the scan conversion algorithm, one the common
edge table optimisation, and one not. Their suitability for
parallel implementation is investigated and their relative
performance in multi\-processor systems is measured using
polygonal scene descriptions of between 150 and 2600
polygons. Dependence upon the size of scene description is
measured and results are extrapolated to larger scene
descriptions. It is shown that scan conversion algorithms
may be efficiently parallelised. It is also shown that the
edge table optimisation, while appropriate to the single
processor case, becomes useless at around twenty processors,
and would actually be a disadvantage in the limiting case of
one processor per scan line.