Re: Mitsubishi Demo in IEEE Computer

John W. Barrus (barrus@merl.com)
Fri, 23 Dec 1994 14:27:12 -0500

At 12:23 PM 12/23/94 -0500, Mike Roberts wrote:
>
>> The graphical database must be local or it couldn't be drawn.
>
>I am not so sure that this necessarily has to be the case; there exist
>multiprocessor systems with low enough latency and enought bandwidth to have
>>the rendering db distributed amongst processors; when a processor needs data
>>"owned" by its neighbour, it would ask for it, it would then be transfered
>>over, remainin while needed, then be disposed of later on.

I should have specified that we are assuming ethernet type networks which
are relatively high latency and low bandwidth for what we are doing. Of
course there are ScramNet type approaches that effectively share memory
across machines (convert data transfer from network-transfer speeds to
memory-access speeds) but the cost of those is prohibitive.

John B.

-------------------------

John Barrus Research Scientist

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. voice 1.617.621.7535
201 Broadway fax 1.617.621.7550
Cambridge, MA 02139 barrus@merl.com