Term of the Moment
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Redirected from: Streaming Multiprocessor
Definition: GPU
(Graphics Processing Unit) A programmable processor specialized for rendering 3D images on the computer's screen. NVIDIA is the leader in the field by a large margin (see NVIDIA). However, AMD and Intel also make GPUs, and Apple, Qualcomm and ARM integrate GPUs into mobile devices.
Streaming Multiprocessor
An NVIDA GPU includes a handful to more than a hundred Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), which are the primary parallel processing unit, and each SM contains thousands of CUDA cores (see CUDA). An SM also includes registers, schedulers and shared memory. For non-NVIDIA GPUs, Compute Units (CU), Workgroup Processors (WGP) and Xe Cores are equivalent to the SM.
Ray Tracing Engine
A GPU may also include hardware to accelerate ray tracing, which simulates a light source falling on objects resulting in bright areas and shadows. Fast ray tracing greatly enhances realism and has become mandatory for serious gaming (see ray tracing).
The Engines Behind AI and Crypto
A GPU is a "math machine" that performs huge amounts of simple calculations simultaneously making it ideal for AI applications that require trillions of computations (see neural network and AI training passes). GPUs are also used to mine cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (see crypto mining).
GPUs Are Often Integrated With the CPU
GPU and Everything Else
Graphics Evolution
Streaming Multiprocessor
An NVIDA GPU includes a handful to more than a hundred Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), which are the primary parallel processing unit, and each SM contains thousands of CUDA cores (see CUDA). An SM also includes registers, schedulers and shared memory. For non-NVIDIA GPUs, Compute Units (CU), Workgroup Processors (WGP) and Xe Cores are equivalent to the SM.
Ray Tracing Engine
A GPU may also include hardware to accelerate ray tracing, which simulates a light source falling on objects resulting in bright areas and shadows. Fast ray tracing greatly enhances realism and has become mandatory for serious gaming (see ray tracing).
The Engines Behind AI and Crypto
A GPU is a "math machine" that performs huge amounts of simple calculations simultaneously making it ideal for AI applications that require trillions of computations (see neural network and AI training passes). GPUs are also used to mine cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (see crypto mining).
Introduced in 2012, AMD's Trinity chip integrated a GPU with memory (DDR3) and two dual-core x86 CPUs, each with their own L2 cache (see x86, L2 cache). (Image courtesy of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
In 2020, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip (SoC). Along with a GPU, this single chip does just about everything for a smartphone. See Snapdragon and SoC.
In early PCs, graphics circuits were always on a separate plug-in card. Today, they are part of the chipset on the motherboard except for gamers who plug in the fastest graphics card they can afford. From top to bottom (1 to 7) is the evolution of graphics circuits in a PC. For AI or running two or more monitors, multiple GPUs are used (#6). High-end graphics cards can cost more than the entire PC. See RTX.