GPU

GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly process mathematical operations, especially ones related to computer graphics. They are more efficient than general-purpose CPUs for algorithms where the processing of large blocks of data is done in parallel, making them highly important for tasks that demand high-resolution 3D graphics and video rendering.

How GPU works

A GPU is designed to execute multiple tasks simultaneously (parallel processing). This makes it incredibly effective for tasks that can be broken down into multiple components that can be processed at the same time. For example, rendering an image requires computing the color and shape of each pixel, which can be done independently of the others.

The GPU takes the data from the CPU and divides the task into multiple smaller ones which can be processed concurrently. This task division is possible due to the structure of GPUs, which contains hundreds or thousands of cores. These cores carry out the task at hand simultaneously, thus providing a fast and efficient performance.

Additionally, modern GPUs now support general purpose computing, which can be utilized for a number of tasks beyond graphics processing, including machine learning and scientific computation. By utilizing a GPU, these tasks can be executed much faster, which has led to significant advancements in various fields.