Graphics processing unit.pdf

Graphics processing unit 1 Graphics processing unit Not to be confused with Graphics card. GPU redirects here. For other uses, see GPU (disambiguation). GeForce 6600GT (NV43) GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU), also occasionally called visual processing unit (VPU), is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles. Modern GPUs are very efficient at manipulating computer graphics, and their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for algorithms where processing of large blocks of data is done in parallel. In a personal computer, a GPU can be present on a video card, or it can be on the motherboard or—in certain CPUs—on the CPU die. The term GPU was popularized by Nvidia in 1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 as the worlds first GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, a single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines that are capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second. Rival ATI Technologies coined the term visual processing unit or VPU with the release of the Radeon 9700 in 2002. History 1980s In 1983, Intel made the iSBX 275 Video Graphics Controller Multimodule Board, for industrial systems based on the Multibus standard.[1] The card was based on the 82720 Graphics Display Controller, and accelerated the drawing of lines, arcs, rectangles, and character bitmaps. The framebuffer was also accelerated through loading via DMA. The board was intended for use with Intels line of Multibus industrial single-board computer plugin cards. Released in 1985, the Commodore Amiga was one of the first personal computers to come standard with a GPU. The GPU supported line draw, area fill, and included a type of stream processor called a blitter whic