U.S. patent application number 15/332508 was filed with the patent office on 2017-02-09 for managing graphics load balancing strategies.
The applicant listed for this patent is International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to James T. Klosowski, Christopher J. Morris.
Application Number | 20170039674 15/332508 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 43068139 |
Filed Date | 2017-02-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170039674 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Klosowski; James T. ; et
al. |
February 9, 2017 |
MANAGING GRAPHICS LOAD BALANCING STRATEGIES
Abstract
A method and system for managing graphics load balancing
strategies are disclosed. The method comprises using a plurality of
rendering servers to render a multitude of graphics frames for a
display device, wherein each of the rendering servers has an
associated workload; identifying a plurality of load balancing
strategies for balancing the workloads on the rendering servers;
selecting one of the load balancing strategies; and using the
selected one of the load balancing strategies to balance the
workloads on the rendering servers. One or more defined metrics are
monitored; and in response to a defined changed in said one or more
defined metrics, another one of the load balancing strategies is
selected and used to balance the workloads on the rendering
servers. In one embodiment, the load balancing policy can be
changed in real-time during the course of an application
session.
Inventors: |
Klosowski; James T.;
(Hawthorne, NY) ; Morris; Christopher J.;
(Hawthorne, NY) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
International Business Machines Corporation |
Armonk |
NY |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
43068139 |
Appl. No.: |
15/332508 |
Filed: |
October 24, 2016 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12465326 |
May 13, 2009 |
9479358 |
|
|
15332508 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06T 1/20 20130101; G09G
2300/026 20130101; G09G 2370/022 20130101; H04L 12/6418 20130101;
G09G 5/14 20130101; H04L 67/1002 20130101; G06F 3/1438 20130101;
G09G 5/005 20130101; G06F 3/1446 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06T 1/20 20060101
G06T001/20; G09G 5/00 20060101 G09G005/00; G09G 5/14 20060101
G09G005/14; H04L 29/08 20060101 H04L029/08; G06F 3/14 20060101
G06F003/14 |
Claims
1. A method of managing graphics load balancing strategies,
comprising: using a plurality of rendering servers to render
concurrently a multitude of graphics frames for a display area on a
display device, wherein each of the rendering servers has an
associated workload; identifying a plurality of load balancing
strategies for balancing the workloads on the rendering servers,
each of the load balancing strategies being a respective one
technique for partitioning the display area into a plurality of
smaller regions and assigning said plurality of smaller regions of
the display area to the rendering servers; and dynamically
switching among the plurality of the load balancing strategies over
a period of time to re-balance the workloads on the rendering
servers, including using a system controller to implement the load
balancing strategies, and using a manager to select different ones
of the load balancing strategies for implementation at different
times in said period of time and for communicating the selected
load balancing strategies to the system controller, including the
manager performing an execution loop to manage selection of the
load balancing strategies, said execution loop including: analyzing
performance statistics and additional information provided by the
system controller to determine when a different one of the load
balancing strategies is needed, changing from one of the load
balancing strategies to another one of the load balancing
strategies when a different one of the load balancing strategies is
needed, communicating said different one of the load balancing
strategies to the system controller, and obtaining new performance
statistics from the system controller when said different one of
the load balancing strategies is executed.
2. The method according to claim 1, the execution loop further
including the manager repeating the analyzing performance
statistics and additional information, changing from one of the
load balancing strategies to another one of the load balancing
strategies, communicating said different one of the load balancing
strategies to the system controller, and obtaining new performance
statistics from the system controller for a specified time.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the specified time is
until a current application ceases.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the manager obtains the
performance statistics for each server from the system controller,
and provides an initial display tile partitions and assignments for
each of the rendering servers, and repartitions, resizes and
reassigns the partitions based on the performance feedback and the
one of the load balancing strategies in use.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the system controller
accepts new load balancing strategies from a user, and passes
information to the manager, said information including display
configuration performance statistics for each server and
user-defined load balancing policy information.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selecting another
one of the load balancing strategies includes changing from said
one of the load balancing strategies to said another one of the
load balancing strategies in real time.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein data are sent between
the rendering servers, and the performance statistics includes the
time it takes to send data between the rendering servers.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said performance
statistics includes application usage patterns, the size and nature
of the data being rendered, the display configuration, and the
amount and type of rendering resources that are available.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said performance
statistics includes one or more user defined metrics.
10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifying
includes a user providing one or more of the load balancing
strategies.
11. A data processing system for managing graphics load balancing
strategies, comprising: a plurality of rendering servers to render
a multitude of graphics frames for a display area on a display
device, wherein each of the rendering servers has an associated
workload; a rendering servers controller for identifying a
plurality of load balancing strategies for balancing the workloads
on the rendering servers, for using one of the load balancing
strategies to balance the workloads on the rendering servers, and
for monitoring one or more defined metrics, each of the load
balancing strategies being a respective one technique for
partitioning the display area into a plurality of smaller regions
and assigning said plurality of smaller regions of the display
region to the rendering servers; and a load balancing policies
manager for dynamically switching among the plurality of the load
balancing strategies over a period of time to re-balance the
workloads on the rendering servers including acting, in response to
a defined change in said one or more defined metrics, to select
another one of the load balancing strategies, including the manager
performing an execution loop to manage selection of the load
balancing strategies, said execution loop including analyzing
performance statistics and additional information provided by the
system controller to determine when a different one of the load
balancing strategies is needed, changing from one of the load
balancing strategies to another one of the load balancing
strategies when a different one of the load balancing strategies is
needed, communicating said different one of the load balancing
strategies to the system controller, and obtaining new performance
statistics from the system controller when said different one of
the load balancing strategies is executed.
12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the execution loop
further includes repeating the analyzing performance statistics and
additional information, changing from one of the load balancing
strategies to another one of the load balancing strategies,
communicating said different one of the load balancing strategies
to the system controller, and obtaining new performance statistics
from the system controller for a specified time.
13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the specified time is
until a current application ceases.
14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the manager obtains
the performance statistics for each server from the system
controller, and provides an initial display tile partitions and
assignments for each of the rendering servers, and repartitions,
resizes and reassigns the partitions based on the performance
feedback and the one of the load balancing strategies in use.
15. The method according to claim 11, wherein the system controller
accepts new load balancing strategies from a user, and passes
information to the manager, said information including display
configuration performance statistics for each server and
user-defined load balancing policy information.
16. An article of manufacture comprising at least one tangible
computer usable hardware device having computer readable program
code logic tangibly embodied therein to execute a machine
instruction in one or more processing units for managing graphics
load balancing strategies, said computer readable program code
logic, when executing, performing the following steps: using a
plurality of rendering servers to render a multitude of graphics
frames for a display area on a display device, wherein each of the
rendering servers has an associated workload; identifying a
plurality of load balancing strategies for balancing the workloads
on the rendering servers, each of the load balancing strategies
being a respective one technique for partitioning the display area
into a plurality of smaller regions and assigning said plurality of
smaller regions of the display region to the rendering servers; and
dynamically switching among the plurality of the load balancing
strategies over a period of time to re-balance the workloads on the
rendering servers, including using a system controller to implement
the load balancing strategies, and using a manager to select
different ones of the load balancing strategies for implementation
at different times in said period of time and for communicating the
selected load balancing strategies to the system controller,
including the manager performing an execution loop to manage
selection of the load balancing strategies, said execution loop
including: analyzing performance statistics and additional
information provided by the system controller to determine when a
different one of the load balancing strategies is needed, changing
from one of the load balancing strategies to another one of the
load balancing strategies when a different one of the load
balancing strategies is needed, communicating said different one of
the load balancing strategies to the system controller, and
obtaining new performance statistics from the system controller
when said different one of the load balancing strategies is
executed.
17. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein the
execution loop further includes repeating the analyzing performance
statistics and additional information, changing from one of the
load balancing strategies to another one of the load balancing
strategies, communicating said different one of the load balancing
strategies to the system controller, and obtaining new performance
statistics from the system controller for a specified time.
18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the
specified time is until a current application ceases.
19. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein the
manager obtains the performance statistics for each server from the
system controller, and provides an initial display tile partitions
and assignments for each of the rendering servers, and
repartitions, resizes and reassigns the partitions based on the
performance feedback and the one of the load balancing strategies
in use.
20. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein:
the using a plurality of rendering servers includes said plurality
of rendering servers rendering the multitude of graphics frames at
a defined rate; the changing from one of the load balancing
strategies to another of the load balancing strategies includes
changing from the one of the load balancing strategies to the
another of the load balancing strategies without affecting said
defined rate; and said defined rate is a constant rate.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending application
Ser. No. 12/465,326, filed May 13, 2009, the entire contents and
disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] This application is related to co-pending application Ser.
No. 12/465,357, filed May 13, 2009, now abandoned, the disclosure
of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] 1. Field of the Invention
[0004] The present invention generally relates to data processing,
and more specifically, the invention relates to graphics processing
using a plurality of rendering servers. Even more specifically, the
invention relates to managing graphic load balancing strategies for
the rendering servers.
[0005] 2. Background Art
[0006] Computer applications have been developed that present
graphic-intensive data processing, including real time video
animation in which an image may be refreshed at rates up to thirty
times a second. The presentation of such information can often
strain the abilities of a computer system, since it may take a
significant amount of processing work for the computer system to
refresh the display screen at the desired rate.
[0007] One strategy for handling this workload is to utilize
multiple concurrent rendering processers to perform animation. A
computer program can be separated into a collection of processes
that are executed by the processors. One possible way in which the
work may be distributed among the available rendering processors is
to subdivide the display into multiple regions, referred to as
tiles, and then assign one or more tiles to each process.
[0008] Increasingly, computer graphic systems are being designed,
constructed, and utilized that employ a collection or cluster of
rendering servers to render to either a single display or to some
sort of "tiled" display (comprised of multiple logical or practical
displays). These clustered rendering systems are increasing in
popularity due to the availability of their commodity components
and their ability to effectively use the aggregation of the
servers' resources. However, care must be taken to ensure that the
resources of each individual server are being efficiently used.
[0009] For example, any application running on such a clustered
rendering system should adjust the distribution of its rendering
tasks to the individual rendering servers so that there is not an
appreciable load imbalance between the rendering servers. Such an
imbalance has the potential to limit the performance and utility of
the overall application.
[0010] Strategies for distributing data have been developed so that
the appropriate data is sent to and rendered by the rendering
server that is attached to the display, on which, the rendered data
will be viewed. This approach, commonly referred to as the
"sort-first" distribution strategy, has proven to be effective at
taking advantage of the rendering capability of each server and
balancing out the rendering load fairly well, especially for
relatively static scenes where the data is evenly distributed
across the displays and their associated servers.
[0011] However, if the scene is manipulated in such a way that
large portions of the data can fall in the boundaries of one or a
few displays, it readily becomes apparent that simply
redistributing the data to the appropriate rendering server is no
longer sufficient. In these scenarios, due to the fact that
rendered pixels of the data all resides on a minority of the
displays, then only a minority of the rendering servers will be
doing any work while the other servers sit idle.
[0012] To address these situations, several researchers have
developed techniques for dynamically partitioning the display
regions so that these smaller partitions can be assigned so that
servers that were doing little to no work in the previous frame can
now be given regions of the display to render that require a lot of
work. These techniques distribute the rendering loads more evenly
and require feedback from the rendering servers in order to perform
their repartitioning and reassignments. Typically, this feedback is
in the form of performance measurements such as the time it takes a
server to send its data to another server or the time it takes a
server to render and display its data. If these performance values
exceed a particular threshold, the rebalancing algorithms are
triggered.
[0013] Each of these balancing "policies" differ in the way they
partition the screen space or "tiles," which performance metrics
they evaluate, and how they use these metrics to "rebalance" the
screen and reassign partitions and data to other nodes. Although
each of these policies is effective for certain scenarios, there
are scenarios where they are not effective and other policies are
warranted. These scenario characteristics include (but are not
limited to): size and nature of the data to be rendered, size of
the display to be rendered to, single display vs. tiled display,
number of display attached rendering servers vs. "stand-alone"
(rendering servers which will ship their resulting pixels to a
server attached to a display), application usage patterns, and
number of total rendering servers.
[0014] Each of these characteristics can significantly affect the
efficiency of each individual load balancing policy. Samanta, et
al, in "Load Balancing for multi-projector systems," Graphics
Hardware 1999, pp 107-116. describe this behavior in the
experimental testing of their own load balancing algorithms.
Consequently, if one were to design a system for doing efficient
and high performing distributed rendering that was adaptable to
both the hardware and software characteristics of the applications
to be run or the cluster unit that it is running on, there needs to
be a mechanism in place to change the load balancing policy. A
system that was able to change the load balancing policy in
real-time and according to the user's discretion or based on the
nature of the application and resource environment would be at a
significant utility advantage to those systems that are unable to
adapt appropriately.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0015] Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and
computer program product for managing graphics load balancing
strategies. The method comprises using a plurality of rendering
servers to render a multitude of graphics frames for a display
device, wherein each of the rendering servers has an associated
workload; identifying a plurality of load balancing strategies for
balancing the workloads on the rendering servers; selecting one of
the load balancing strategies; and using the selected one of the
load balancing strategies to balance the workloads on the rendering
servers. One or more defined metrics are monitored; and in response
to a defined changed in said one or more defined metrics, another
one of the load balancing strategies is selected and used to
balance the workloads on the rendering servers. In one embodiment,
the load balancing policy can be changed in real-time during the
course of an application session.
[0016] An embodiment of the invention implements a tile managing
system which has several functions. The manager has multiple load
balancing strategies for which it can choose from. The manager
initializes the system by providing the initial display tile
partitions and assignments for each rendering server, acting as a
monitor of the performance feedback from each rendering server, and
repartitioning, resizing, and or reassigning the partitions based
on the performance feedback and the load balancing policy in
use.
[0017] The load balancing policy can be changed in real-time during
the course of an application session. The policy can be changed at
the behest of the application user or based on a combination of
other system inputs such as the rendering server performance
metrics or the display and rendering server configuration. For
example, if a policy is being employed that reassigns the
partitions, on a per-frame basis, based on the rendering times of
each rendering server, and it is determined through extended
monitoring by the tile manager that the communication (of sending
data between the rendering servers) times are the current
bottleneck, the tile manager could switch to a policy that simply
assigns the partitions and does not reassign them.
[0018] If the performance metrics later suggest that the behavior
is changed (due to new application usage patterns), the tile
manager can switch back to the previous policy. As a result, the
tile manager can provide any distributed rendering application with
the ability to adjust to such factors as the application usage
patterns, the size and nature of the data to be rendered, the
display configuration, and the amount and type of rendering
resources that are available.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] FIG. 1 generally illustrates a rendering system in which an
embodiment of the present invention is implemented.
[0020] FIG. 2 shows information that may be transmitted between the
Tile Manager and the System Controller of the rendering system of
FIG. 1.
[0021] FIG. 3 lists information that may be used by and functions
that may be performed by the Tile Manager.
[0022] FIG. 4 depicts an execution loop performed by the Tile
Manager in an embodiment of the invention.
[0023] FIG. 5 shows a data processing system in which an embodiment
of the invention may be implemented.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0024] As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the
present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer
program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the
form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software
embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code,
etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that
may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," "module" or
"system." Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a
computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of
expression having computer usable program code embodied in the
medium.
[0025] Any combination of one or more computer usable or computer
readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-usable or
computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an
electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or
semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium.
More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the
computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical
connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette,
a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory
(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash
memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory
(CDROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as
those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage
device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium
could even be paper or another suitable medium, upon which the
program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured,
via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium,
then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable
manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the
context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable
medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate,
propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection
with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The
computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with
the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in
baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program
code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but
not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF,
etc.
[0026] Computer program code for carrying out operations of the
present invention may be written in any combination of one or more
programming languages, including an object oriented programming
language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional
procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming
language or similar programming languages. The program code may
execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's
computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's
computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote
computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may
be connected to the user's computer through any type of network,
including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN),
or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example,
through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
[0027] The present invention is described below with reference to
flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus
(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of
the invention. It will be understood that each block of the
flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of
blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be
implemented by computer program instructions. These computer
program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general
purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable
data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the
instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or
other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for
implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or
block diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions
may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a
computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to
function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored
in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture
including instruction means which implement the function/act
specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0028] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a
computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a
series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or
other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented
process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or
other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the
functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram
block or blocks.
[0029] The present invention relates to a data processing system
that speeds up generation of graphic images by utilizing multiple
concurrent rendering processor services to refresh a video display.
The present invention dynamically balances the graphics workload
among the available rendering processes; and, as part of this
balancing, the display is subdivided into multiple regions or
tiles, and each rendering process is assigned one or more of these
tiles.
[0030] In one embodiment, a Tile Manager 12 is used to implement a
number of functions. With reference to FIG. 1, the tile Manager is
a component of a larger distributed or parallel rendering system
14. In running an application on such a system, the user would
interact with the application via a "front-end" client 16 that
accepts user input and potentially displays the final rendered
pixels. Alternatively, the rendered pixels could be displayed on a
larger tile display 20. The user input is sent from the front-end
client to a system controller 22 which then processes the input and
sends it to the multiple "back-end" servers 24 where appropriate.
Sample user input may be commands to open a data set, render the
data set, and modify the direction in which to view the data. The
System Controller 22 keeps track of which servers are rendering
servers (responsible for rendering the data), display servers
(responsible for displaying the data), or both. Information such as
the camera and viewport parameters are examples of what the System
Controller maintains and passes to each server. The Tile Manager
apparatus communicates exclusively with the System Controller
22.
[0031] With referent to FIGS. 1 and 2, the System Controller passes
information to the Tile Manager, and this information is then used
to manage the tiles with the resulting information being passed
back to the System Controller. The System Controller sends the
following information to the Tile Manager: the display
configuration; the performance statistics for each server; and
user-defined load balancing policy information.
[0032] The display configuration includes which servers are
rendering servers, display servers, or both. This information may
include (but is not limited to) the global display characteristics
such as the global viewport parameters. The System Controller could
also be designed to pass user-defined window parameters, such as
the number of tile partitions and the partition configuration.
[0033] The performance statistics for each server may include (but
are not limited to) the time, for the previous frame, to render the
data, to display the data, to read back and send rendered pixels to
another server (if rendering server is not a display server as
well), etc. The System Controller may be constructed to accept new
load balancing policies from the user, and the user may be able to
dictate which policy should be used.
[0034] The Tile Manager sends the following information to the
System Controller: the number of processes (encompassing display
tiles) that each server is responsible for; the ID of the server
that is responsible for each process; and the tile parameters
(width, height, global offset, etc.) associated with each
process.
[0035] A process is an entity that comprises a region of the
overall display (or tile), the server that was responsible for that
process for the previous frame, and the performance statistics
associated with the process for the previous frame. With reference
to FIG. 3, the Tile Manager manages several data items including
all of the processes for a particular application session. The Tile
Manager also manages the load balancing policies. Each load
balancing policy is comprised of smaller subsystem that accepts
information about the display configuration, process information,
and performance statistics and uses this information to implement a
particular load balancing algorithm.
[0036] Each policy has a common interface so that the Tile Manager
can easily pass the same information to each policy. The Tile
Manager also maintains a list of all of the rendering servers,
display servers, and combination (both rendering and display)
servers as well as the global display configuration information.
This information includes (but is not limited to) the global
viewport, whether a tiled display is being used or not, how each
display comprises the overall display, and which servers are
responsible for which display. The Tile Manager uses this
information to perform its numerous functions.
[0037] These functions include (but are not limited to): obtaining
the performance statistics for each server from the System
Controller; obtaining updated display configuration information
from the System Controller; obtaining user input such as display
configuration or a request to change policies from the System
Controller; adding or removing load balancing policies and servers
as needed; using the obtained data, determining whether or not a
new load balancing policy should be implemented; implementing the
current load balancing policy by running the associated load
balancing algorithm using the current process information; and
sending the results of the load balancing algorithm (in the form of
new process information) back to the System Controller.
[0038] FIG. 4 shows an execution loop 50 performed by the Tile
Manager 12. At step 52, the Tile Manager initializes the process
(tile) settings to default values. At step 54, the Manager analyzes
performance statistics and additional information provided by the
System Controller (if there are any) to determine if a new load
balancing policy is needed. At step 56, the Manager updates/changes
the policy if needed. At step 60, the current load balancing policy
is executed using acquired information; and at step 62, the
resulting process (tile) information is sent to the System
Controller. At step 64, the System Controller executes the
rendering of the next frame; and at step 66, the Tile Manager
obtains new performance statistics and additional information from
the System Controller. Steps 54-66 are repeated until the
application ceases.
[0039] An embodiment of the invention has been implemented in an
SPVN (Scalable Parallel Visual Networking) API. The Tile Manager
was written as a C++ class using a well understood design pattern.
However, embodiments of the invention could be implemented in other
programming languages or even in hardware. Due to the common
interface between the load balancing policies, the Tile Manager can
quickly switch between policies in real-time during the operation
of an application. The implementation of this invention provides
the capability for SPVN (or distributed rendering systems) to be
highly adaptable to not only the system configuration that the
application is running on, but also to the usage patterns and
necessary tasks of any rendering application.
[0040] FIG. 5 shows a processing system 100 in which the present
invention may be embodied. The system 100 includes a software
application 101 running on a host data processing system 102. The
application 101 uses a local display server 103. The display server
103 of the application 101 is virtualized through the use of a
local network 104 (usually Ethernet) linking to a rendering cluster
110 comprising a plurality of X servers 111-114. Each of the X
servers 111-114 is used to draw a portion of the graphics output on
individual displays 121-124.
[0041] The display server 103 accepts standard X11 calls make by
the application 101, encodes them, and performs the same X11
function call onto each node of the cluster 110 of rendering
servers 111-114. Each member of the cluster 110 receives the X11
function call data and draws its portion of the final image in
parallel. Each rendering server 111-114 displays a portion 121-124
of the image. This may be, for example, as a tile of a display wall
or projection system.
[0042] While it is apparent that the invention herein disclosed is
well calculated to fulfill the objects discussed above, it will be
appreciated that numerous modifications and embodiments may be
devised by those skilled in the art, and it is intended that the
appended claims cover all such modifications and embodiments as
fall within the true scope of the present invention.
* * * * *