Volume rendering pipelines

Abstract

An apparatus renders a volume data set including a plurality of voxels stored in a voxel memory. The apparatus includes a plurality of pipelines operating in parallel. Each pipeline includes a buffer storing at least one block of at least two voxels of the volume data set. An interpolation stage reads the at least one block of at least two voxels from the buffer. A gradient estimation stage receives an output from the interpolation stage. A compositing stage receives an output from the gradient estimation stage. The apparatus also includes a plurality of interface devices, wherein each interface device couples a particular stage only to an adjacent identical stage in a neighboring pipeline so that identical stages of the pipelines are connected in a ring.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.