The Equalizer Parallel Rendering Framework
Stefan Eilemann∗
Renato Pajarola†
Visualization and MultiMedia Lab
Department of Informatics
University of Zürich
Technical Report IFI-2007.06, Department of Informatics, Unviersity of Zürich
ABSTRACT
Continuing improvements in CPU and GPU performances as well
as increasing multi-core processor and cluster-based parallelism de-
mand for scalable parallel rendering solutions that can exploit mul-
tipipe hardware accelerated graphics. In fact, to achieve interactive
visualization, scalable rendering systems are essential to cope with
the rapid growth of data sets. However, parallel rendering solutions
are non-trivial to develop and often only application specific imple-
mentations have been proposed. The task of developing a scalable
parallel rendering framework is even more difficult if it should be
generic to support various types of data and visualization applica-
tions, and at the same time work efficiently on a cluster with dis-
tributed graphics cards.
In this paper we introduce Equalizer, a toolkit for scalable paral-
lel rendering based on OpenGL which provides an application pro-
gramming interface (API) to develop scalable graphics applications
for a wide range of systems ranging from large distributed visu-
alization clusters and multi-processor multipipe graphics systems
to single-processor single-pipe desktop machines. We describe the
architecture of Equalizer, discuss its advantadges over previous ap-
proaches, present example configurations and usage scenarios as
well as some scalability results.
Keywords: Scalable Rendering, Parallel Rendering, Immersive
Environments, Scalable Graphics Hardware.
1
INTRODUCTION
The continuing improvements in hardware integration lead to ever
faster CPUs and GPUs, as well as higher resolution sensor and
display devices. Moreover, increased hardware parallelism is ap-
plied in form of multi-core CPU workstations, massive parallel su-
per computers, or cluster systems. Hand in hand goes the rapid
growth in complexity of data