Object-level parallelism in a virtual environment architecture
David A. Southard · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1994
We describe a virtual environment architecture (VEA) that incorporates an object-oriented design approach. VEA emphasizes fine-grained multiprocessing, which takes advantage of the processing power available on today's multiprocessor workstations. Inter-object communications are supported primarily through events. VEA allows objects to process events simultaneously, subject to processor availability and data consistency constraints. Device abstraction layering is important for isolating assumptions, and for removing dependencies on certain I/O devices or modes of interaction. Finally, VEA provides facilities for loading and saving virtual environment configuration files, which allow a session to be saved and restarted.