Memory Organization for a Cubic Frame Buffer

Abstract

A special memory organization of a cubic voxel-based frame buffer is presented. The memory of voxels is divided into n modules of voxels each. The k-th module groups together all the principal diagonal planes within the cubic frame buffer, that their sequential index is k mod (n ). This organization guarantees that all the n voxels which constitute a row in any direction parallel to the axes reside in different modules, permitting the retrieval of all the voxels of a row simultaneously. This memory layout is the heart of a voxel-based CUBE Architecture for three-dimensional graphics. The architecture employs three processors which access the memory, to input, manipulate, and view the image within the memory. The unique memory organization enables these processors and the entire system to cope with real-time constraints.