Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Revisiting the Computer GPU Computing Goodies

An acronym for graphics processing unit, GPU, when used together with CPU or Central Processing for performing engineering and scientific computations, the process is known as GPU computing. One of the main reasons as to why a lot of users use GPU computing is because it completes the work in extremely less time since the entire workload is distributed equally, i.e. the calculations are handled by the GPU while the sequential aspect is taken care of by the CPU.

At the turn of the century the use of GPU for the purpose of computing was initiated by researchers as well as by scientists. They realized that using GPU for the purpose of computations was extremely beneficial because of its huge range of scientific applications except for one problem, that it was not compatible with the programming language. However this problem was solved by means of making certain changes and making the system supportive of high level computer languages after which it became more versatile.

These days most of the computers come with GPU which makes it easy to design the graphics used in animation movies as well as computer games. Also, the GPU perform most of the graphics output functions. There is one slight factor that needs to be kept in mind and that is sometimes the current driver may be compatible but a lot of times it requires the latest models and versions of drivers for running GPU.

Before using GPU on your computer you should check whether your system has the capability to host it or not. Some computers might have it, some might not and it all depends on the operating system installed on your computer because specific GPU programs are present for each and every operating system. Few other factors that should be kept in mind are the type of adaptor, the needs of your project and the size of the memory. These should be checked in order to make sure that they are compatible.

The hybrid nature of this technology enables it to run numerous parallel threads thanks to the hundreds of parallel cores featured in it. Unlike the CPUs that specialize in serial operations, the data entered into the GPU is split into several fragments and each of these fragments are processed in parallel. Therefore this reveals the secret as to why the speed is so high.

Programmers can take advantage of this parallel processing architecture and perform even the most critical sections of their work quickly as well as accurately. What’s more, if the CPU is offloaded gradually and systematically, then there would be a phenomenal increase in speed and if coupled with newer technologies, the speed can be increased to a truly impressive level.

It is important for users to be aware of the fact that GPU computing is a function that is performed only after the computer is switched off. If this is not followed then the graphic output would not be steady and also one will have to alter or modify the preferences. One can also configure it in such a way that it would switch off automatically when execution of incompatible operations is taking place.

Considering the amount of work that it can perform, the GPU is an economical application. If you want an even more advanced option then you can consider using a multi GPU system. The GPU along with the right language conversion and primary requirements like the parallel code is indeed an impressive and powerful team.

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