The pixel machine: a parallel image computer

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 pipe nodes which execute sequential algorithms and an array of m × n pixel nodes which execute parallel algorithms. A pixel node directly accesses every m-th pixel on every n-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.