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A hardware stochastic interpolator for raster displays

Authors:

Timothy S. Piper,

Alain FournierAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, Volume 18, Issue 3

Pages 83 - 92

https://doi.org/10.1145/964965.808582

Published: 01 January 1984 Publication History

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Abstract

Stochastic modeling has found uses so far mainly for expensive very realistic graphics display. The cost of rendering is not intrinsic to the technique, but mainly due to the high resolution and the sophisticated display techniques which accompany it. We describe here a basic tool for a less expensive approach to stochastic modeling which is designed for a more “down to earth” type of application, and brings the display of stochastic models nearer to real-time.

A special purpose board for stochastic interpolation has been built, which can generate an array of up to 129×129 12 bit stochastic values to be used by the rest of the display system as a texture source, or for more elaborate algorithms. The board functions as a coprocessor in a traditional frame buffer system, and includes a micro-coded bit-slice processor, a multiplier, special hardware to generate uniformly distributed random numbers, memory to store a look-up table for random numbers with the required distribution, and two buffers for the resulting arrays.

The current implementation generates values at less than 4 microseconds per point, and in conjunction with a standard graphics processor can display nearly 10000 stochastic points in real-time, or can update a full screen of stochastic values in less than one second. Illustrations are given of the output of the board and of pictures and animations generated with it.

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Wainer M(2005)Massively parallel implementations of adaptively subdividing fractal generating algorithms with parameter extensionsComputing in the 90's10.1007/BFb0038491(185-191)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2005
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Published In

cover image ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics

ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Volume 18, Issue 3

July 1984

264 pages

ISSN:0097-8930

DOI:10.1145/964965

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGGRAPH '84: Proceedings of the 11th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
January 1984
264 pages
ISBN:0897911385
DOI:10.1145/800031
Chairmen:
David A. Luther,
Richard M. Mueller,
Richard A. Weinberg,
Robert A. Ellis,
Editor:
Hank Christiansen

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 1984

Published in SIGGRAPH Volume 18, Issue 3

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Stochastic modeling

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Cited By

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Wainer M(2005)Massively parallel implementations of adaptively subdividing fractal generating algorithms with parameter extensionsComputing in the 90's10.1007/BFb0038491(185-191)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0038491
Fournier A(1991)Random Processes in Computer GraphicsState of the Art in Computer Graphics10.1007/978-1-4612-4448-6_6(113-149)Online publication date: 1991
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4448-6_6
Wainer M(1988)Generating Fractal-Like Surfaces on General Purpose Mesh-Connected ComputersIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/12.223837:7(882-886)Online publication date: 1-Jul-1988
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/12.2238
Magnenat-Thalmann NThalmann D(1987)An Indexed Bibliography on Image SynthesisIEEE Computer Graphics and Applications10.1109/MCG.1987.2769177:8(27-38)Online publication date: 1-Aug-1987
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MCG.1987.276917
Owen J(1986)Computer graphics and CAD literature—A keyword-indexed bibliographyComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/j.1467-8659.1986.tb00304.x5:3(233-264)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1986
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8659.1986.tb00304.x
England N(1986)A graphics system architecture for interactive application-specific display functionsIEEE Computer Graphics and Applications10.1109/MCG.1986.2766126:1(60-70)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1986
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Fournier AMilligan T(1985)Frame Buffer Algorithms for Stochastic ModelsIEEE Computer Graphics and Applications10.1109/MCG.1985.2762355:10(40-46)Online publication date: 1-Oct-1985
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Rosenfeld A(1985)Picture processing: 1984Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing10.1016/0734-189X(85)90096-930:2(189-231)Online publication date: May-1985
https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-189X(85)90096-9
Fournier AMilligan T(1985)Frame Buffer Algorithms for Stochastic ModelsComputer-Generated Images10.1007/978-4-431-68033-8_4(35-44)Online publication date: 1985
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Wainer M(2019)Generating Fractal-Like Surfaces on General Purpose Mesh-Connected ComputersIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/12.223837:7(882-886)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2019
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