General-purpose computing on graphics processing units: Difference between revisions

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{{More citations needed|date=February 2022}}

'''General-purpose computing on graphics processing units''' ('''GPGPU''', or less often '''GPGP''') is the use of a [[graphics processing unit]] (GPU), which typically handles computation only for [[computer graphics]], to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the [[central processing unit]] (CPU).<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Fung |first1=James |last2=Tang |first2=Felix |last3=Mann |first3=Steve |date=7–10 October 2002 |title=Mediated Reality Using Computer Graphics Hardware for Computer Vision |url=http://www.eyetap.org/papers/docs/iswc02-fung.pdf |conference=Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable Computing 2002 (ISWC2002) |___location=Seattle, Washington, USA |pages=83–89 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402173637/http://www.eyetap.org/~fungja/glorbits_final.pdf |archive-date=2 April 2012}}</ref><ref name="Aimone">{{cite journal | url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00779-003-0239-6 | doi=10.1007/s00779-003-0239-6 | title=An Eye ''Tap'' video-based featureless projective motion estimation assisted by gyroscopic tracking for wearable computer mediated reality | year=2003 | last1=Aimone | first1=Chris | last2=Fung | first2=James | last3=Mann | first3=Steve | journal=Personal and Ubiquitous Computing | volume=7 | issue=5 | pages=236–248 | s2cid=25168728 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>[http://www.eyetap.org/papers/docs/procicassp2004.pdf "Computer Vision Signal Processing on Graphics Processing Units", Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2004)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819000326/http://www.eyetap.org/papers/docs/procicassp2004.pdf |date=19 August 2011 }}: Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 17–21 May 2004, pp. V-93 – V-96</ref><ref>Chitty, D. M. (2007, July). [https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/rts/docs/GECCO_2007/docs/p1566.pdf A data parallel approach to genetic programming using programmable graphics hardware] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808190114/https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/rts/docs/GECCO_2007/docs/p1566.pdf |date=8 August 2017 }}. In Proceedings of the 9th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation (pp. 1566-1573). ACM.</ref> The use of multiple [[video card]]s in one computer, or large numbers of graphics chips, further parallelizes the already parallel nature of graphics processing.<ref>[http://eyetap.org/papers/docs/procicpr2004.pdf "Using Multiple Graphics Cards as a General Purpose Parallel Computer: Applications to Computer Vision", Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR2004)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718193841/http://eyetap.org/papers/docs/procicpr2004.pdf |date=18 July 2011 }}, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 23–26 August 2004, volume 1, pages 805–808.</ref>

Essentially, a GPGPU [[graphics pipeline|pipeline]] is a kind of [[Parallel computing|parallel processing]] between one or more GPUs and CPUs that analyzes data as if it were in image or other graphic form. While GPUs operate at lower frequencies, they typically have many times the number of [[Multi-core processor|cores]]. Thus, GPUs can process far more pictures and graphical data per second than a traditional CPU. Migrating data into graphical form and then using the GPU to scan and analyze it can create a large [[speedup]].

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In principle, any arbitrary [[Boolean function]], including addition, multiplication, and other mathematical functions, can be built up from a [[functional completeness|functionally complete]] set of logic operators. In 1987, [[Conway's Game of Life]] became one of the first examples of general-purpose computing using an early [[stream processing|stream processor]] called a [[blitter]] to invoke a special sequence of [[bit blit|logical operations]] on bit vectors.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hull|first=Gerald|title=LIFE|journal=Amazing Computing|volume=2|issue=12|pages=81–84|date=December 1987|url=https://archive.org/stream/amazing-computing-magazine-1987-12/Amazing_Computing_Vol_02_12_1987_Dec#page/n81/mode/2up}}</ref>

General-purpose computing on GPUs became more practical and popular after about 2001, with the advent of both programmable [[shader]]s and [[floating point]] support on graphics processors. Notably, problems involving [[matrix (mathematics)|matrices]] and/or [[vector (mathematics and physics)|vector]]s{{snd}} especially two-, three-, or four-dimensional vectors{{snd}} were easy to translate to a GPU, which acts with native speed and support on those types. A significant milestone for GPGPU was the year 2003 when two research groups independently discovered GPU-based approaches for the solution of general linear algebra problems on GPUs that ran faster than on CPUs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Krüger |first1=Jens |last2=Westermann |first2=Rüdiger |date=July 2003 |title=Linear algebra operators for GPU implementation of numerical algorithms |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/882262.882363 |journal=ACM Transactions on Graphics |language=en |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=908–916 |doi=10.1145/882262.882363 |issn=0730-0301|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bolz |first1=Jeff |last2=Farmer |first2=Ian |last3=Grinspun |first3=Eitan |last4=Schröder |first4=Peter |date=July 2003 |title=Sparse matrix solvers on the GPU: conjugate gradients and multigrid |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/882262.882364 |journal=ACM Transactions on Graphics |language=en |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=917–924 |doi=10.1145/882262.882364 |issn=0730-0301|url-access=subscription }}</ref> These early efforts to use GPUs as general-purpose processors required reformulating computational problems in terms of graphics primitives, as supported by the two major APIs for graphics processors, [[OpenGL]] and [[DirectX]]. This cumbersome translation was obviated by the advent of general-purpose programming languages and APIs such as [[Lib Sh|Sh]]/[[RapidMind]], [[BrookGPU|Brook]] and Accelerator.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tarditi |first1=David |first2=Sidd |last2=Puri |first3=Jose |last3=Oglesby |title=Accelerator: using data parallelism to program GPUs for general-purpose uses |journal=ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News |volume=34 |issue=5 |date=2006|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15740-f07/public/discussion-papers/26-tarditi-asplos06.pdf|doi=10.1145/1168919.1168898 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Che |first1=Shuai |last2=Boyer |first2=Michael |last3=Meng |first3=Jiayuan |last4=Tarjan |first4=D. |last5=Sheaffer |first5=Jeremy W. |last6=Skadron |first6=Kevin |title=A performance study of general-purpose applications on graphics processors using CUDA |journal=J. Parallel and Distributed Computing |volume=68 |issue=10 |date=2008 |pages=1370–1380 |doi=10.1016/j.jpdc.2008.05.014 |df=dmy-all |citeseerx=10.1.1.143.4849 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Glaser |first1=J. |last2=Nguyen |first2=T. D. |last3=Anderson |first3=J. A. |last4=Lui |first4=P. |last5=Spiga |first5=F. |last6=Millan |first6=J. A. |last7=Morse |first7=D. C. |last8=Glotzer |first8=S. C. |date=2015 |title=Strong scaling of general-purpose molecular dynamics simulations on GPUs |journal=Computer Physics Communications |volume=192 |pages=97–107 | doi=10.1016/j.cpc.2015.02.028|arxiv=1412.3387 |bibcode=2015CoPhC.192...97G | doi-access=free}}</ref>

These were followed by Nvidia's [[CUDA]], which allowed programmers to ignore the underlying graphical concepts in favor of more common [[high-performance computing]] concepts.<ref name="du">{{Cite journal |doi= 10.1016/j.parco.2011.10.002 |title= From CUDA to OpenCL: Towards a performance-portable solution for multi-platform GPU programming |journal= Parallel Computing |volume= 38 |issue= 8 |pages= 391–407 |year= 2012 |last1= Du |first1= Peng |last2= Weber |first2= Rick |last3= Luszczek |first3= Piotr |last4= Tomov |first4= Stanimire |last5= Peterson |first5= Gregory |last6= Dongarra |first6= Jack |author-link6= Jack Dongarra |df= dmy-all |citeseerx= 10.1.1.193.7712 }}</ref> Newer, hardware-vendor-independent offerings include Microsoft's [[DirectCompute]] and Apple/Khronos Group's [[OpenCL]].<ref name="du"/> This means that modern GPGPU pipelines can leverage the speed of a GPU without requiring full and explicit conversion of the data to a graphical form.

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== Further reading ==

* {{Cite journal |last1=Owens |first1=J.D. |last2=Houston |first2=M. |last3=Luebke |first3=D. |last4=Green |first4=S. |last5=Stone |first5=J.E. |last6=Phillips |first6=J.C. |date=May 2008 |title=GPU Computing |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4490127 |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |volume=96 |issue=5 |pages=879–899 |doi=10.1109/JPROC.2008.917757 |s2cid=17091128 |issn=0018-9219|url-access=subscription }}

* {{Cite journal |last1=Brodtkorb |first1=André R. |last2=Hagen |first2=Trond R. |last3=Sætra |first3=Martin L. |date=2013-01-01 |title=Graphics processing unit (GPU) programming strategies and trends in GPU computing |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743731512000998 |journal=Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing |series=Metaheuristics on GPUs |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=4–13 |doi=10.1016/j.jpdc.2012.04.003 |issn=0743-7315|hdl=10852/40283 |hdl-access=free }}