NCAR Visualization Lab

The VisLab is a state-of-the-art scientific visualization environment, providing an immersive environment for visualizing complex datasets in stereo-3D and collaborating across sites via AccessGrid video teleconferencing.

Features include:

• Large format, high-resolution screen
• Stereo-3D projection system
• High-bandwidth networking
• AccessGrid video teleconferencing
• Wired and wireless desktop networking
• Flexible media routing system that enables individual notebooks to feed into the room's display systems

Focus areas for the lab include:

• High-performance visualization of large complex simulation datasets
• Volume and flow visualization
• Distributed visualization
• Immersive collaborative environments

The visual supercomputer that drives the room is an SGI Onyx 2/Infinite Reality with dedicated, parallel graphics engines. The lab also features a second SGI visual supercomputer, several midrange visual workstations, and a collection of custom Intel-based PC systems, along with three terabytes of RAID-5 (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) storage, nine gigabytes of physical memory, and gigabit Ethernet communications. These systems are maintained by the Data & Analysis Services Group (DASG).

These computational resources, networked to five high-resolution projectors and a 24-by-9-foot (8-by-3.5-meter) projection screen, give researchers the capability to visualize massive datasets and numerical models.

The VisLab can comfortably seat about 35 people for a boardroom-style meeting and a few more for a theater-style presentation, and is a completely "fly-by-wire" system: the computers, lights, and audio systems are all operated by a dedicated touchpad display or a web interface via a browser. VisLab events are managed by the Visualization & Enabling Technologies Section (VETS).