Computing system supporting parallel 3D graphics processes based on the division of objects in 3D scenes

1 . A computing system supporting parallel 3D graphics processes based on the division of objects in 3D scenes, said computing system comprising:

CPU memory space for storing one or more graphics-based applications and a graphics library for generating graphics commands and data (GCAD) during the run-time of the graphics-based applications;

one or more CPUs for executing said graphics-based applications; and

a parallel graphics processing system (PGPS) having multiple graphics processing pipelines (GPPLs), supporting object division based parallelism among said GPPLs, and performing pixel depth value comparison within each GPPL using a common global depth map (GDM) during pixel rendering processing.

2 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein said parallel graphics processing system further includes:

(i) a decomposition module for supporting the decomposition stage of parallel operation;

(ii) a distribution module for supporting the distribution stage of parallel operation;

(iii) a recomposition module for supporting the recomposition stage of parallel operation; and

(iv) a rendering module for supporting the rendering stage of parallel operation.

3 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein during operation,

(i) said decomposition module divides the stream of graphic commands and data (GCAD) according to said object-division mode of parallel operation;

(ii) said distribution module distributes graphic commands and data (GCAD) to said GPPLs;

(iii) said rendering module generates complementary-type partial color images according to a parallel multi-pass graphics processing method; and

(iv) said recomposition module uses inter-GPU communication to transfer the pixel data of said complementary-type partial images among said GPPLs, and a depthless image merging process to generate said complete color image of the 3D scene for display on said display device.

4 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein each said GPPL is a GPU-based graphics processing pipeline which comprises (i) a video memory structure supporting a frame buffer (FB) including stencil, depth and color buffers, and (ii) a graphics processing unit (GPU) supporting (1) a geometry subsystem having an input assembler and a vertex shader, (2) a set up engine, and (3) a pixel subsystem including a pixel shader receiving pixel data from the frame buffer and a raster operators operating on pixel data in the frame buffers.

5 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein each said GPPL is a GPU-based graphics processing pipeline which comprises (i) a video memory structure supporting a frame buffer (FB) including stencil, depth and color buffers, and (ii) a graphics processing unit (GPU) supporting (1) a geometry subsystem having an input assembler, a vertex shader and a geometry shader, (2) a rasterizer, and (3) a pixel subsystem including a pixel shader receiving pixel data from the frame buffer and a raster operators operating on pixel data in the frame buffers.

6 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein each said GPPL is a CPU-based graphics processing pipeline which comprises (i) a video memory structure supporting a frame buffer including stencil, depth and color buffers, and (ii) a graphics processing pipeline realized by a cell of a multi-core CPU chip, including a plurality of in-order SIMD processors, and optionally, a GPPL-specific extension, namely, a texture sampler that loads texture maps from memory, filters them for level-of-detail, and feeds to pixel processing portion of the pipeline.

7 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the decomposition module supports the scanning of commands, the control of commands, the tracking of objects, the balancing of loads, and the assignment of objects to said GPPLs,

8 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein said distribution module supports transmission of graphics data in various modes including CPU-to/from-GPPL, inter-GPPL, broadcast, hub-to/from-CPU, and hub-to/from-CPU and hub-to/from-GPPL.

9 . The computing system of claim 1 wherein said graphics data includes data selected from the group consisting of FB data, commands, textures, geometric data and other data.

10 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein said recomposition module supports a variety of modes the merging of partial complementary-type images in the color frame buffers of said GPPLs.

11 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein said variety of modes of merging said partial complementary-type images includes: merging color frame buffers without z buffers, and merging color buffers using stencil-assisted processing.

12 . The computing system of claim 1 , which further comprises a display device for displaying images containing graphics during the execution of said graphics-based applications.