Newsgroups: comp.parallel.mpi,comp.graphics.raytracing
From: kgeis@ucsee.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Geis)
Subject: Using multi-threading/MPI/etc. for ray-tracing?
Organization: University of California Society of Electrical Engineers
Date: 19 Aug 1994 20:54:21 GMT
Message-ID: <33365t$3ts@agate.berkeley.edu>


	Hi.  I am planning to write or extend a ray-tracer with some
ideas of my own.  I am looking for ideas of how to implement what I want
it to do.

	My main idea is to install a piece of hardware in my computer
which can offload ray-box intersections from the CPU.  First off, I will
be writing this in C++.  Now, there will have to be two programs: the
ray-tracer, and the root permission driver or kernel code to send and
receive the info from hardware.  My big problem is that I want the
ray-tracer to continue processing whatever else it can while waiting for
the box processor to calculate and return an intersection.

	So, what I need to do is be able to suspend a function and be
able to reenter it when the device driver sends a signal.  I've thought
of using a threading package, but I have no experiece with them and I
am afraid there is too much overhead.  I'm currently considering
writing special code to handle my situation...  I'm looking for
suggestions.

	Although I haven't explained the situation fully, I'd like some
suggestions as to what I could do.

Thanks in advance,

	Ken Geis
	kgeis@ucsee.eecs.berkeley.edu

