GPGPU

Technology & Computing abbreviation · Computer Hardware

GPGPU
Stands forGeneral-purpose computing on graphics processing units
CategoriesTechnology & Computing

GPGPU stands for General-purpose computing on graphics processing units, a computer hardware abbreviation.

Use of a graphics processor for non-graphics computation, such as scientific simulation, video encoding, password cracking, cryptocurrency mining and AI training, exploiting its thousands of parallel cores.

Example: The lab ported its fluid simulation to GPGPU and cut run times from days to hours.

Usage notes

Researchers in the early 2000s disguised calculations as graphics operations before dedicated tools appeared. Nvidia's CUDA (2007) and the open OpenCL standard (2009), originally proposed by Apple, made the approach practical. The Folding@home project added GPU clients in 2006 to simulate protein folding. Today the practice is so routine that the term itself is used less often.

More computer hardware abbreviations

  • FDD – Floppy disk drive
  • FLOPS – Floating-point operations per second
  • FPU – Floating-point unit
  • FSB – Front-side bus
  • FSR – FidelityFX Super Resolution
  • GDDR – Graphics double data rate
  • GPU – Graphics processing unit
  • HAMR – Heat-assisted magnetic recording
  • HBA – Host bus adapter
  • HBM – High Bandwidth Memory
  • HD – Hard disk
  • HDD – Hard disk drive

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