An Investigation of the Parallel Implementation of Two Volume Visualization Techniques on the nCUBE 2.

Abstract

This report presents a divide-and-conquer approach to developing visualization software for scientific analysis of high resolution, volume datasets on distributed memory parallel computers. Two complementary methods for exploring volume datasets are discussed, isosurface generation and direct volume rendering, and the logic behind the design of parallel implementations of the original sequential algorithms is highlighted. For both algorithms, the data, once distributed, remains in place regardless of the viewer's location, and no interprocessor communication is required during scene generation. Development of the algorithms' communication structure is also discussed, with an introduction to issues surrounding parallel I/O and data distribution for these implementations. Finally, basic parallel performance metrics will be outlined, and test results indicating the performance results of the parallel implementations on an nCUBE 2 will be discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA296601

Entities

People

  • John E. West
  • Louis H. Turcotte
  • Michael M. Stephens

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computers
  • Data Visualization
  • Differential Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Measurement
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Three Dimensional
  • Topology
  • User Interface
  • Visualizations

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.