Neural processing unit: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:47, 17 June 2016

Revision as of 03:47, 17 June 2016

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can still be gained with a more specific design.

The [[memory access pattern]] of AI calculations differs from graphics, with more a more predictable but deeper [[dataflow]] ,rather than 'gather' from texture-maps & 'scatter' to frame buffers. GPUs devote silicon to dealing with irregular [[scatter-gather-scatter memory access patterns]] and [[texture filtering]] for graphics rendering, which isn't usually needed in AI.

As of 2016, vendors are pushing their own terms, in the hope that their designs and [[API]]s will dominate. In the past after [[graphics accelerator]]s emerged, the industry eventually adopted [[NVidia]]s self assigned term "[[GPU]]" as the collective noun for "graphics accelerators", which had settled on an overall pipeline patterned around [[Direct3D]]. There is no consensus on the boundary between these devices, nor the exact form they will take, however several examples clearly aim to fill this new space.