A Scalable and Reconfigurable Shared-Memory Graphics Cluster Architecture

Abstract: If the computational demands of an interactive graphics rendering application cannot be met by a single commodity Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), multiple graphics accelerators may be utilised on multi-GPU based systems such as SLI [1] or Crossfire [2] or by a cluster of PCs in conjunction with a software infrastructure. Typically these PC cluster solutions allow the application programmer to use a standard OpenGL API. In this paper we describe an FPGA based hardware architecture, which provides an interface for multiple commodity graphics accelerators. Our scalable parallel rendering architecture aims to accelerate graphics applications using a tightly coupled hybrid system of parallel commodity GPUs and reconfigurable hardware [3], while providing similar services to the above mentioned approach. This is work in progress. So far, we have designed and manufactured the required custom-hardware. Currently, we are focussing on implementing the shared-memory subsystem.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ERSA
• Authors: Ross Brennan, Michael Manzke, Keith O'Conor, John Dingliana, Carol O'Sullivan
• Keywords: Commodity Graphics, ERSA 2007, Graphics Accelerators, Hardware, Single Commodity Graphics