A compact volume rendering accelerator
Günter Knittel, Wolfgang Straßer · 1994
We describe the architecture of a hardware accelerator for volume rendering.The system basically consists of four VLSI chips and the volume memory and represents a singleboard solution to the computational challenges of volume visualization.It generates arbitrary perspective projections, so that walk-through examinations are possible.The classification of structures of interest is an integral part of the rendering pipeline.Image quality is enhanced by providing Phong shading, depth-cueing and support for translucency.Despite its compactness and algorithmic complexity, the system is able to render 2563 data sets at a sustained frame generation rate of about 2.5Hz.