Parallel Rendering using the Elan Interconnection Network

The Terascale Computing System (TCS) is a new high-performance machine that was recently installed by researchers at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). The TCS was constructed using commod-ity hardware components that communicate over a high-speed Quadrics Elan intercon-nection network. The PSC is also build-ing a visualization subsystem for the TCS using a cluster of high-end workstations equipped with nVidia-based graphics accel-erators and Quadrics Elan interconnection hardware. Unfortunately, Quadrics does not provide a high-level programming interface to access the low-level abilities provided by the Elan hardware. In addition, neither WireGL nor Chromium, the software packages being used for graphics rendering, support the Elan interconnection network. We describe the op-eration of a high-level Elan communications interface, called libtcomm, as well as the mod-i ed WireGL and Chromium network layers that provide support for the Elan intercon-nect. We also consider the initial perfor-mance implications of using libtcomm with WireGL