Description:
<jats:p>
We describe the system architecture and the programming environment of the Pixel Machine - a parallel image computer with a distributed frame buffer.The architecture of the computer is based on an array of asynchronous MIMD nodes with parallel access to a large frame buffer. The machine consists of a pipeline of
<jats:italic>pipe nodes</jats:italic>
which execute sequential algorithms and an array of
<jats:italic>m</jats:italic>
&times;
<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>
pixel nodes which execute parallel algorithms. A
<jats:italic>pixel node</jats:italic>
directly accesses every
<jats:italic>m</jats:italic>
-th pixel on every
<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>
-th scan line of an interleaved frame buffer. Each processing node is based on a high-speed, floating-point programmable processor.The programmability of the computer allows all algorithms to be implemented in software. We present the mappings of a number of geometry and image-computing algorithms onto the machine and analyze their performance.
</jats:p>