A split node cache scheme for fast ray tracing

We propose a node cache scheme for efficient ray tracing hardware. The scheme uses an aspect that traversing high-level nodes have more locality. In this method, a node cache is split into a high-level node cache and a low-level node cache. The data of the high-level nodes is retained during one frame. In addition, this scheme has a hybrid tree layout. That is, the high-level nodes are represented to the breath-first layout for a division of nodes, and the low-level nodes are represented to the depth-first layout for an effective use of locality. Simulation results show the reduction in cache miss ratio up to around three percent.