Volume visualization system on PC cluster

We propose here a volume rendering system consisting of many client PC's and Gbit Ethernet hubs. The original volume data V/sup 3/ is divided Np (the number of PCs) square poles alongside x-axis, y-axis or z-axis which is nearest to the main direction of rays. Each PC performs the rendering based on its own sub volume data (V/sup 3//Np). Partial images of all PCs are transferred to adjacent PCs to superpose images with their own images. After superposition, they transfer partial results to next adjacent PCs. On our computer simulation, the system consisting of 54 sets of client PC's will accomplish the volume visualization at the speed 30 FPS.