A DISTRIBUTED GRAPHICS LIBRARY-SYSTEM

We present a set of library routines that allow easily parallelized gr aphics rendering routines that require no communication between each p arallel task, such as ray-tracing, to be run efficiently in an environ ment of distributed workstations. The presentation of the paper focuse s on the problems encountered in implementing a distributed system und er Unix and proposes solutions to each problem. Specifically, we discu ss the challenges involved in overcoming the limits of communicating w ith a large number of processes in Unix and in providing fault toleran ce when using sockets. Technical aspects of the implementation and som e additional problems that were encountered are discussed. Finally, we compare the rendering times for a complex image with a renderer using the library and show that the library routines are able to exploit mu ch of the existing parallelism. The library is presented using a graph ics application, though the concepts are generic enough to be of use i n designing any distributed system under Unix.