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

Revision as of 15:15, 5 November 2006

Revision as of 17:11, 5 November 2006

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{{mergeto|Stream processing|Talk page}}

'''General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units''' (GPGPU, also referred to as GPGP and to a lesser extent GP^2) is a recent trend in [[computer science]] that uses the [[Graphics processing unit|Graphics Processing Unit]] to perform the computations rather than the [[Central processing unit|CPU]]. The addition of programmable stages and higher precision arithmetic to the GPU [[rendering pipeline]] have allowed [[software developer]]s to use the GPU for non graphics related applications. Because of the extremely parallel nature of the graphics pipeline the GPU is especially useful for programs that can be cast as [[stream processing]] problems.