Scan line graphics generation on the massively parallel processor

The author describes the implementation of a scan line graphics generation algorithm on the massively parallel processor MPP. Pixels are computed in parallel and their results are applied to the Z buffer in large groups. To perform pixel value calculations, facilitate load balancing across the processors and apply the results to the Z buffer efficiently in parallel requires special virtue routing (sort computation) techniques developed by the author especially for use on single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) architectures. This involves a preprocessing (scout) step which determines how much of the sort is necessary to provide sufficient contiguous space to duplicate the data. Once this has been determined a sort is used to compress the data which can be terminated early based on the information derived by the scout step. This then gives the ability to keep as many processors as possible busy with reasonable efficiency