** A simple ray tracer in jocaml **


The ray tracer code is courtesy of Jon Harrop

<http://www.ffconsultancy.com/languages/ray_tracer/index.html>

- Compile: make [byte|opt]

- Programs

  + Sequential ray tracer:  ./ray.opt

  + Distributed ray tracer: ./client.opt and ./server.opt

    On, for instance, a dual-core machine, run it by
    ./client.opt & ./client.opt & ./server.opt 9 1024 > a.ppm
    or more directly by
    ./server.opt 9 1024 2 > a.ppm

    Remote computing is possible,
      On machine A:
        A> ./server.opt 9 1024 > a.ppm
      On other machines:
        B> ./client.opt A
        C> ./client.opt A
        etc.
        (Notice that killing the server on A should kill clients
         on other machines)
            

- Performance on a mutiprocessor (PC 3GHz)
  2 processors X 2 cores X 2 claim something 

  Times are wallclock times.

  Sequential (cf ray.ml ./ray.opt 9 1024)
  24.4

  Distributed (cf client.ml/server.ml, ./server.opt 9 1024 N)
  N T
  1 25
  2 13
  3 9.1
  4 7.1