A LOW-POWER HIGH-PERFORMANCE POLYGON RENDERER FOR COMPUTER-GRAPHICS

Polygon rasterization is one of the most computational and memory inte nsive operations in computer graphics. In this paper, we present a low -power, real-time hardware design for this task. The system is resolut ion-independent by configuring different numbers of render engines in a 2-dimensional array. Using an array configuration of 16 render engin es for a 512 x 512-pixel display, a peak performance of up to 3.4 mill ion Gouraud-shaded polygons/sec is achievable. Total power consumption , depending on the polygon throughput, ranges between 17 mW to 133 mW at 1.5 V operation. A format for transmitting polygon information is p roposed at a typical bandwidth of 4 Mbps, suitable for wireless transm ission. This screen and format configurable design has potential appli cation in portable, wireless head-mounted displays for virtual reality systems.