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GPU Architecture and Programming

GPUs have evolved from rendering graphics to powerful processors for general-purpose computing, leveraging their massively parallel architecture for high-performance tasks. Key components include Streaming Multiprocessors, CUDA cores, and a memory hierarchy, with programming models like CUDA and OpenCL facilitating efficient computation. Applications range from deep learning to real-time rendering, though challenges such as complex memory management and debugging persist.

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18 views3 pages

GPU Architecture and Programming

GPUs have evolved from rendering graphics to powerful processors for general-purpose computing, leveraging their massively parallel architecture for high-performance tasks. Key components include Streaming Multiprocessors, CUDA cores, and a memory hierarchy, with programming models like CUDA and OpenCL facilitating efficient computation. Applications range from deep learning to real-time rendering, though challenges such as complex memory management and debugging persist.

Uploaded by

toobamanzoor60
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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GPU Architecture and Programming

Introduction

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) were originally designed for rendering graphics but have evolved into

powerful processors for general-purpose computing. Due to their massively parallel architecture, GPUs are

widely used in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and scientific simulations.

GPU Architecture Overview

Core Components

- Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs): The basic execution units that contain many CUDA cores.

- CUDA Cores: Handle arithmetic and logic operations, similar to CPU cores but smaller and simpler.

- Memory Hierarchy:

- Global Memory: Large but slow; accessible by all threads.

- Shared Memory: Fast and shared among threads in a block.

- Local Memory: Per-thread memory used for register spill.

- Constant & Texture Memory: Read-only and optimized for certain use cases.

SIMT Model (Single Instruction, Multiple Thread)

Unlike CPUs that follow SISD (Single Instruction, Single Data), GPUs follow SIMT, allowing thousands of

threads to execute the same instruction on different data simultaneously.

GPU Programming Models

CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture)

A parallel computing platform and API model by NVIDIA.


GPU Architecture and Programming

Key Concepts:

- Kernel Function: A function executed on the GPU.

- Thread, Block, Grid Hierarchy:

- Threads are grouped into blocks.

- Blocks form a grid.

- Execution Model: Each thread executes the kernel independently with unique IDs.

OpenCL (Open Computing Language)

An open standard for writing code that runs across heterogeneous platforms including GPUs.

Example: Vector Addition in CUDA

__global__ void vectorAdd(float *A, float *B, float *C, int N) {

int i = threadIdx.x + blockDim.x * blockIdx.x;

if (i < N) C[i] = A[i] + B[i];

Launch Configuration:

vectorAdd<<<numBlocks, blockSize>>>(A, B, C, N);

Applications of GPU Programming

- Deep learning (training neural networks)

- Cryptography and blockchain

- Computational fluid dynamics

- Medical image processing


GPU Architecture and Programming

- Real-time rendering and gaming

Advantages of GPU Computing

- High parallelism

- Improved performance for data-intensive tasks

- Energy-efficient computation compared to CPUs for certain workloads

Challenges

- Complex memory management

- Debugging parallel code

- Not all algorithms benefit from GPU acceleration

Conclusion

GPUs are revolutionizing computational performance in various domains. Understanding GPU architecture

and programming models like CUDA enables developers to exploit this power for solving large-scale

computational problems efficiently.

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