DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH

	EXISTING IMPLEMENTATIONS OF REAL-TIME RASTER-SCAN COMPUTER
GRAPHICS SYSTEMS ARE BASED ON THE INTERCONNECTION OF THOUSANDS OF
MEDIUM-SCALE INTEGRATION LOGIC DEVICES.  THE CURRENT SOPHISTICATION
OF THESE COLOR SYSTEMS PROVIDE SMOOTH-SHADING, ANTI-ALIASING, SURFACE
TEXTURE, AND OBJECT FADING IN SPECIAL-PURPOSE HARDWARE WHICH CALCULATES
30 PICTURES PER SECOND.  SUCH SYSTEMS ARE EXTREMELY COMPLEX AND COST
SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS EACH.
	THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE THE USE OF VERY LARGE SCALE
INTEGRATION AS A PARTIAL SOLUTION TO THE COMPLEXITY AND COST.  RECENT
DESIGN METHODOLOGIES DEVELOPED AT XEROX'S PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER
ALLOW COMPUTER ARCHITECTS TO DESIGN VLSI CIRCUITS WITHOUT EXTENSIVE
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE IN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT PROCESSING, AND IN A
VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.  THIS METHODOLOGY WILL BE APPLIED TO SOME
SUBSYSTEMS IN COMPUTER GRAPHICS HARDWARE SUCH AS SMOOTH SHADING,
SORTING, OCCULTING (PRIORITY), AND ANTI-ALIASING.  THE GOAL WILL BE
TO IDENTIFY THOSE SUBSYSTEMS FOR WHICH VLSI IS APPROPRIATE, AND TO
USE THE METHODOLOGY TO DEVELOP THE CORRESPONDING VLSI CIRCUITS.