wm@cse.ogc.edu (Wm Leler) (09/29/89)
ParaGraph Colloquia Series on Parallelism and Computer Graphics The Portland area has one of the highest concentrations of companies working on parallelism in the world, and also a long history and a large number of companies working on computer generated graphics. Unfortunately, there is very little interaction between these two groups, even though the combination of parallelism and computer graphics is one of the hottest emerging markets in the industry (at the recent SIGGRAPH conference, the tutorial on parallelism and computer graphics was the most heavily attended at the conference, and there were several panel sessions and papers on this topic). To help rectify this situation, local government, educational and commercial organizations are putting on a series of colloquia featuring leading researchers in this field. Speakers who will be giving colloquia include Frank Crow, Gary Demos, Jeff Mock, Richard Weinberg, Scott Whitman, Turner Whitted, and others. The series will cover both hardware and software aspects of the use of parallelism for computer graphics, including the following: The range of parallel graphics hardware, from conventional parallel machines -- such as the PIXAR transputer-based image computer, designed by Jeff Mock, which implements the RenderMan graphics language -- to esoteric designs such as Henry Fuchs' Pixel-Planes renderer, which incorporates a processor with each pixel on the screen. Advanced parallel graphics algorithms such as ray tracing, invented by Turner Whitted, and radiosity, developed by Don Greenberg and others at Cornell University. Experiences using parallel computers for computer graphics including the Ardent Titan, used by Richard Weinberg for scientific visualization; the Cray supercomputer, used by Gary Demos to produce animation sequences for movies such as "The Last Starfighter"; the Connection Machine, used by Frank Crow; and the BBN Butterfly, used by Scott Whitman. The announcements for the first two talks follow: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Massively Parallel Processing for Graphics Franklin C. Crow Xerox PARC Many architectures and algorithms have been proposed for applying massively parallel methods to computer graphics. In recent years the onrush of technology has stampeded those of us who like to think about such things from the realms of fantasy and wishful thinking to the realm of the actually possible. A few massively parallel graphics systems have now actually been implemented. We can expect to see many more very soon. Can we really expect to attain, through parallel systems, the six orders of magnitude speedup necessary to produce today's most expensive imagery in real time? Answers may lie in looking at some current approaches to massive parallelism in graphics and the bottlenecks they leave. It will also help to look carefully at what is required to make images and how information must flow from shape descriptions to pixels. -------------- Franklin C. Crow received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah. His thesis was the first major treatment of the problem of aliasing in computer generated imagery. He subsequently taught for 4 years at the University of Texas (Austin) and 3 years at Ohio State University, where he was granted tenure. During his academic career, Crow did considerable consulting in the entertainment industry, where he helped bring realistic synthetic imagery to mass media. He then joined Xerox as a Member of the Research Staff at PARC. Since joining Xerox, he has maintained academic connections by serving on dissertation committees at various universities and lecturing at Stanford University and at conference tutorials. Providing the technological basis for exploitation of advanced computer imagery has been Crow's primary focus. Since joining Xerox, he has continued to pursue his interest in integrating software and hardware in the design of graphical systems. Tuesday, 10 October 1989 10:30-11:45 a.m. Room 123 (OCATE CASE Room) 19500 NW Gibbs Drive behind the OGC CS building in the OGC Science Park Sponsored by OCATE, OACIS, OGC, and Cogent Research. --------------------------------------------------------------- Gigaflop Graphics Gary Demos DemoGraFX Computer graphics power is about to make a dramatic increase. This is due to several trends: the increase in processing speed of microprocessors through the use of RISC technology, the expansion of computer color systems from 8 or less bits to 24 bits per pixel, and the high density and level of integration of the new generation of integrated circuits, combining a complete processor with high performance floating point and a small cache onto a single chip. The first of what is expected to be many example of this is the Intel i860. Other manufacturers, such as MIPS and others, are expected to come out with similar high performance chips in the very near future. The last major trend in computing is the advent of massively parallel assemblies of these types of computing cells. Systems with computing power in the range of hundreds of Gigaflops will be possible in the early 90's. This talk will discuss Demos' experiences with the Cray 1, Cray XMP, Ardent Titan, and Thinking Machines Connection Machine II. The talk will survey the uses of high resolution digitally-produced imagery, as applied to entertainment, theme park, medical imagery, industrial design, fashion design, textile design, scientific research, and general engineering uses, and the coming of HDTV. ------------------ Gary Demos received his Ph.D. from Cal Tech in 1971. While at Evans & Sutherland he helped develop the first random access frame buffer. In 1975 Demos joined Information International, Inc. using their precision film recorders and a custom 1000 line frame buffer to produce animation for such movies as "Futureworld", "Looker", and "Tron". In 1981, he and John Whitney, Jr. founded Digital Productions, where they became known as the people using a Cray XMP as a personal computer, producing graphics for such movies as "The Last Starfighter", "2010", and "Labyrinth". In 1984, Demos received the Academy Scientific and Engineering Award "For the practical simulation of motion picture photography by means of computer-generated images". In 1986, he helped found Whitney/Demos Productions, making extensive use of a Connection Machine II to produce graphics. In 1988 he founded DemoGraFX, doing consulting on a number of projects, including a machine with performance in the Teraflop range. Monday, 16 October 1989 7:00-9:00 p.m. Room 123 (OCATE CASE Room) 19500 NW Gibbs Drive behind the OGC CS building in the OGC Science Park Sponsored by OCATE, OACIS, OGC, Intel, and Cogent Research.