SUPERCOMPUTING FOR HIGH COMPLEXITY COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Digital Productions uses a CRAY X-MP supercomputer to produce motion picture graphics. The graphics algorithms used there have suggested a three layer computer hierarchy. The first layer is a standard, existing supercomputer. The second layer consists of many processors which perform the function of array processing and conditional integer math. One can think of the third level as being an “intelligent memory,” rather than a highly parallel computer. Such an architecture will only be workable when provisions are made to build this integrated system in conjunction with a stable operating system.