Data aware clustered architecture for an image generator
AssigneeAechelon Technology, Inc.
InventorsDavid L. Morgan, III, Ignacio Sanz-Pastor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A data aware clustered system architecture is described for an image generation system. The architecture leverages commodity personal computers to provide the processing capability of the image generator such as may be used in a flight simulator. The architecture supports a data pipeline for processing stages of a progressive data structure for the transformation of data from abstract data to a more concrete form for the generation of an image. The architecture provides a multi-staged data flow that extends transparently from a single node system to multiple CPUs in a single node system, to multiple nodes in a clustered system or to multiple CPUs on each node of a clustered system.
Claims36
A system for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures, the system comprising:
- a computer system having a programmable processor, a graphics pipeline subsystem communicatively coupled via a communication infrastructure to the processor, and
- a memory accessible via the communication infrastructure to the processor and the graphics pipeline;
- a progressive data builder module stored in said memory comprising instructions for execution by the computer system for determining whether each substructure in a first progressive structure is active, and for, responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data.
A method for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures, the method comprising:
- determining whether each substructure in a first progressive structure is active;
- and
- responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data.
A system for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures, the system comprising;
- means for determining whether each substructure in a first progressive structure is active;
- and
- means for, responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data.
A computer usable medium comprising instructions embodied thereon for performing a method for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures, the method comprising:
- determining whether each substructure in a first progressive structure is active;
- and
- responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data.
A method for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures comprising:
- formatting incoming data having attributes for one or more components of a scene into a first stage progressive data structure including a substructure having the attributes for one or more components of the scene;
- determining whether each substructure in the first stage progressive structure is active or not for the current frame;
- responsive to the substructure not being active, setting a pointer to the substructure to a special value in a second stage progressive data structure;
- and
- responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data, and storing the resulting rendering data for the substructure in the second stage progressive data structure.
A system for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures comprising:
- a computer system having a programmable processor, a graphics pipeline communicatively coupled via a communication infrastructure to the processor;
- a memory accessible via the communication infrastructure to the processor and the graphics pipeline;
- a first stage progressive data builder module being stored in said memory comprising instructions for execution by the computer system for formatting incoming data having attributes for one or more components of a scene into a first stage progressive data structure including a substructure having the attributes for one or more components of the scene;
- and
- a second stage progressive builder module being stored in said memory comprising instructions for execution by the computer system for determining whether each substructure in the first stage progressive structure is active or not for the current frame, responsive to the substructure not being active, setting a pointer to the substructure to a special value in a second stage progressive data structure, responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data, and storing the resulting rendering data for the substructure in the second stage progressive data structure.
A system for processing different versions of a progressive data structure in a data pipeline in an image generation system, the progressive data structure comprising attributes for one or more components of a scene and having a format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures comprising:
- means for formatting incoming data having attributes for one or more components of a scene into a first stage progressive data structure including a substructure having the attributes for one or more components of the scene;
- means for determining whether each substructure in the first stage progressive structure is active or not for the current frame;
- means for, responsive to the substructure not being active, setting a pointer to the substructure to a special value in a second stage progressive data structure;
- and
- means for, responsive to the substructure being active, performing rendering computations producing resulting rendering data, and storing the resulting rendering data for the substructure in the second stage progressive data structure.
An image generation system comprising:
- a plurality of nodes networked in a clustered system architecture, the plurality of nodes including a front end node having a data interface for communication with the image generation system, and one or more back end nodes for performing different functions related to image generation;
- the plurality of nodes being networked via a progressive data structure network for the communication from the front end node to the one or more back end nodes of data having a progressive data structure format, the format comprising a header section with a table having one or more pointers to one or more data substructures;
- and
- the plurality of nodes being networked via a system network for the communication of data including status data.
The image generation system of clam 29 wherein the data of the progressive data structure network is transmitted using a broadcast transmission data protocol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.