Impact of gigabit network research on scientific visualization

Abstract

Networks based on the High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) will become the norm at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The ramification of such a high-speed networking paradigm on scientific visualization are enormous. Not only will scientists have the capability of networked framebuffer animation loops in their offices, but also the partitioning of graphics tasks between MIMD, SIMD, and specialized hardware will be feasible. Of course, as bandwidth increases, the problem size quickly grows to exceed whatever the limits are. For this reason, the investigation of gigabyte networks is currently underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory.