Particle graphics on reconfigurable hardware

Particle graphics simulations are well suited for modeling complex phenomena such as water, cloth, explosions, fire, smoke, and clouds. They are normally realized in software as part of an interactive graphics application. The computational complexity of particle graphics simulations restricts the number of particles that can be updated in software at interactive frame rates. This article presents the design and implementation of a hardware particle graphics engine for accelerating real-time particle graphics simulations. We explore the design process, implementation issues, and limita-tions of using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for the acceleration of particle graphics. The FPGA particle engine processes million-particle systems at a rate from 47 to 112 million particles per second, which represents one to two orders of magnitude speedup over a 2.8 GHz CPU. Using three FPGAs, a maximum sustained performance of 112 million particles per second was achieved