Wittenbrink, Craig M.Kurt Akeley and Ulrich Neumann2013-10-282013-10-282001158113407X1727-3471https://doi.org/10.2312/EGGH/EGGH01/073-080We present a graphics hardware architecture that implements Carpenter's A-buffer. The A-buffer is a software renderer that uses pointer based linked lists. Our pointerless approach computes order independent transparency for any number of layers with minimal hardware complexity. Statistics are shown for a variety of different scenes using a trace based methodology, with an instrumented Mesa OpenGL implementation. The architecture is shown to require from 2.1 to 3.6 times more memory than traditional Z-buffering. A detailed hardware design is provided, Order independent transparency is computed without application sorting and without artifacts. The architecture can also be used for antialiasing, and an example of Carpenter's classical A-buffer antialiasing is shown.AntialiasingFlame Buffer AlgorithmsGraphics HardwareRendering HardwareVisibility Determination