Order-preserving distributed rasterizer

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to render primitives in parallel, by performing the steps of:

• receiving primitives in a first order;
• distributing primitive descriptors that represent the primitives for parallel processing to produce multiple streams, each stream including processed primitive descriptors;
• routing the multiple streams of processed primitive descriptors to produce a first stream of processed primitive descriptors representing primitives that intersect a first portion of a screen and a second stream of processed primitive descriptors representing primitives that intersect a second portion of the screen;
• reordering the processed primitive descriptors in the first stream to match the first order;
• reordering the processed primitive descriptors in the second stream to match the first order;
• and
• rasterizing the primitives that intersect the first portion of the screen and the primitives that intersect the second portion of the screen in parallel to produce rasterized pixels of an image.

A system for rendering primitives in parallel, the system comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• receive primitives in a first order;
• distribute primitive descriptors that represent the primitives for parallel processing to produce multiple streams, each stream including processed primitive descriptors;
• route the multiple streams of processed primitive descriptors to produce a first stream of processed primitive descriptors representing primitives that intersect a first portion of a screen and a second stream of processed primitive descriptors representing primitives that intersect a second portion of the screen;
• reorder the processed primitive descriptors in the first stream to match the first order;
• reorder the processed primitive descriptors in the second stream to match the first order;
• and
• rasterize the primitives that intersect the first portion of the screen and the primitives that intersect the second portion of the screen in parallel to produce rasterized pixels of an image.