Crossref journal-article
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics (320)
Abstract

Pixel-planes is a logic-enhanced memory system for raster graphics and imaging. Although each pixel-memory is enhanced with a one-bit ALU, the system's real power comes from a tree of one-bit adders that can evaluate linear expressions Ax+By+C for every pixel (x,y) simultaneously, as fast as the ALUs and the memory circuits can accept the results. We and others have begun to develop a variety of algorithms that exploit this fast linear expression evaluation capability. In this paper we report some of those results. Illustrated in this paper is a sample image from a small working prototype of the Pixel-planes hardware and a variety of images from simulations of a full-scale system. Timing estimates indicate that 30,000 smooth shaded triangles can be generated per second, or 21,000 smooth-shaded and shadowed triangles can be generated per second, or over 25,000 shaded spheres can be generated per second. Image-enhancement by adaptive histogram equalization can be performed within 4 seconds on a 512x512 image.

Bibliography

Fuchs, H., Goldfeather, J., Hultquist, J. P., Spach, S., Austin, J. D., Brooks, F. P., Eyles, J. G., & Poulton, J. (1985). Fast spheres, shadows, textures, transparencies, and imgage enhancements in pixel-planes. ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, 19(3), 111–120.

Authors 8
  1. Henry Fuchs (first)
  2. Jack Goldfeather (additional)
  3. Jeff P. Hultquist (additional)
  4. Susan Spach (additional)
  5. John D. Austin (additional)
  6. Frederick P. Brooks (additional)
  7. John G. Eyles (additional)
  8. John Poulton (additional)
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Dates
Type When
Created 19 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 16, 2005, 9:47 a.m.)
Deposited 2 months ago (June 18, 2025, 5:34 a.m.)
Indexed 2 months ago (June 19, 2025, 12:24 a.m.)
Issued 40 years, 1 month ago (July 1, 1985)
Published 40 years, 1 month ago (July 1, 1985)
Published Online 40 years, 1 month ago (July 1, 1985)
Published Print 40 years, 1 month ago (July 1, 1985)
Funders 0

None

@article{Fuchs_1985, title={Fast spheres, shadows, textures, transparencies, and imgage enhancements in pixel-planes}, volume={19}, ISSN={0097-8930}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/325165.325205}, DOI={10.1145/325165.325205}, number={3}, journal={ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics}, publisher={Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)}, author={Fuchs, Henry and Goldfeather, Jack and Hultquist, Jeff P. and Spach, Susan and Austin, John D. and Brooks, Frederick P. and Eyles, John G. and Poulton, John}, year={1985}, month=jul, pages={111–120} }