A system is provided for application of a lighting model to a rasterized stream of pixels. The system typically includes a series of circuits, each for applying a lighting model to a single pixel. Each chip typically includes some memory sources for storing the lighting model, an input section connected to receive data indicative of the normal vector, Z depth, and material characteristics of the object represented by the pixel to be colored. A special purpose processor connected to the input then applies the lighting model to the pixel and supplies color value of the pixel as an output signal.