Accelerating radiosity calculations using reconfigurable platforms

We describe a feasibility study into accelerating computer graphics radiosity calculations using reconfigurable hardware. A modular hardware/software codesign framework has been developed for experimenting with hardware acceleration of a time consuming step: formfactor determination. We describe a parameterised hardware design pattern, captured in the Handel-C language, which enables rapid exploration of the area/throughput design space for simple pipelines. Using this pattern we determine speedup and resource usage on a range of Xilinx Virtex FPGA devices, and examine future trends in performance. As a sample of these results we demonstrate a 7.6 times speed-up over a 1.4GHz Athlon PC using a Xilinx XCV2000E and, based on place and route reports, estimate 31 times speed-up using a Xilinx XC2V8000.