Open Source, OpenGL Driver for the Cell BE Processor

Over the past decade, the emergence of commodity Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) has had a profound impact on DOE scientific research programs. Then, in 2005, Sony, Toshiba and IBM (STI) introduced the Cell processor. Unlike the GPU, the Cell processor is a general purpose processing unit. However, like the GPU, the Cell has certain characteristics that make it attractive to the high performance scientific computing and visualization communities. Many in the high performance computing community look to the Cell as the basis for a next generation Petascale computing platform. This project will evaluate whether the Cell is a viable platform for rendering high performance graphics within the context of scientific visualization. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: An open-source open-GL driver for the Cell processor should find use in DOE high performance visualization applications, and should create the opportunity for scaling visualization and graphics into the Petascale regime.