Volume rendering pipelines
First Claim
1. An apparatus for rendering a volume data set including a plurality of voxels stored in a voxel memory, the apparatus comprising a plurality of pipelines operating in parallel, each pipeline comprising:
- a buffer storing at least one block of at least two voxels of the volume data set;
an interpolation stage reading the at least one block of at least two voxels from the buffer;
a gradient estimation stage receiving an output from the interpolation stage;
a compositing stage receiving an output from the gradient estimation stage; and
a plurality of interface devices, each interface device coupling a particular stage only to an adjacent identical stage in a neighboring pipeline, the interfaces coupling identical stages in a ring.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus renders a volume data set including a plurality of voxels stored in a voxel memory. The apparatus includes a plurality of pipelines operating in parallel. Each pipeline includes a buffer storing at least one block of at least two voxels of the volume data set. An interpolation stage reads the at least one block of at least two voxels from the buffer. A gradient estimation stage receives an output from the interpolation stage. A compositing stage receives an output from the gradient estimation stage. The apparatus also includes a plurality of interface devices, wherein each interface device couples a particular stage only to an adjacent identical stage in a neighboring pipeline so that identical stages of the pipelines are connected in a ring.
-
Citations
10 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for rendering a volume data set including a plurality of voxels stored in a voxel memory, the apparatus comprising a plurality of pipelines operating in parallel, each pipeline comprising:
-
a buffer storing at least one block of at least two voxels of the volume data set;
an interpolation stage reading the at least one block of at least two voxels from the buffer;
a gradient estimation stage receiving an output from the interpolation stage;
a compositing stage receiving an output from the gradient estimation stage; and
a plurality of interface devices, each interface device coupling a particular stage only to an adjacent identical stage in a neighboring pipeline, the interfaces coupling identical stages in a ring. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
a delay unit coupled between a previous stage and a next stage of the same pipeline for temporary storage of output from the previous stage.
-
-
9. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising pixel memory receiving an output of the compositing stage.
-
10. A method for rendering a volume data set including a plurality of voxels stored in a voxel memory, comprising the steps of:
-
storing blocks of at least two voxels of the volume data set in a buffer;
processing multiple blocks, in parallel, in a plurality of pipelines connected to the buffer, the processing in each pipeline comprising the steps of;
interpolating each block read from the buffer in a first stage of the pipeline to produce samples;
estimating a gradient for each sample in a second stage of the pipeline;
compositing the samples and gradients in a third stage of the pipeline to produce pixels; and
interfacing a particular stage only to one adjacent identical stage in a neighboring pipeline, the interfacing coupling identical stages in a ring.
-
Specification