| Graphics
Processing Unit (GPU) |
Definition
There are various applications that require a 3D world to be simulated as
realistically as possible on a computer screen. These include 3D animations in
games, movies and other real world simulations. It takes a lot of computing power
to represent a 3D world due to the great amount of information that must be used
to generate a realistic 3D world and the complex mathematical operations that
must be used to project this 3D world onto a computer screen. In this situation,
the processing time and bandwidth are at a premium due to large amounts of both
computation and data. The functional purpose
of a GPU then, is to provide a separate dedicated graphics resources, including
a graphics processor and memory, to relieve some of the burden off of the main
system resources, namely the Central Processing Unit, Main Memory, and the System
Bus, which would otherwise get saturated with graphical operations and I/O requests.
The abstract goal of a GPU, however, is to enable a representation of a 3D world
as realistically as possible. So these GPUs are designed to provide additional
computational power that is customized specifically to perform these 3D tasks.
A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a microprocessor
that has been designed specifically for the processing of 3D graphics. The processor
is built with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering
engines, capable of handling millions of math-intensive processes per second.
GPUs form the heart of modern graphics cards, relieving the CPU (central processing
units) of much of the graphics processing load. GPUs allow products such as desktop
PCs, portable computers, and game consoles to process real-time 3D graphics that
only a few years ago were only available on high-end workstations. Used
primarily for 3-D applications, a graphics processing unit is a single-chip processor
that creates lighting effects and transforms objects every time a 3D scene is
redrawn. These are mathematically-intensive tasks, which otherwise, would put
quite a strain on the CPU. Lifting this burden from the CPU frees up cycles that
can be used for other jobs. However, the GPU is not just for playing 3D-intense
videogames or for those who create graphics (sometimes referred to as graphics
rendering or content-creation) but is a crucial component that is critical to
the PC's overall system speed. In order to fully appreciate the graphics card's
role it must first be understood. Many synonyms exist for Graphics Processing
Unit in which the popular one being the graphics card .It's also known as a video
card, video accelerator, video adapter, video board, graphics accelerator, or
graphics adapter. The first
graphics cards, introduced in August of 1981 by IBM, were monochrome cards designated
as Monochrome Display Adapters (MDAs). The displays that used these cards were
typically text-only, with green or white text on a black background. Color for
IBM-compatible computers appeared on the scene with the 4-color Hercules Graphics
Card (HGC), followed by the 8-color Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) and 16-color
Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA). During the same time, other computer manufacturers,
such as Commodore, were introducing computers with built-in graphics adapters
that could handle a varying number of colors.tions ux400.
Perhaps the most
interesting difence between VGA and the preceding formats is that VGA was analog,
whereas lay
s had been digital up to that pGoinfrom digital to analog may seem
like a step backward, but it actually provided the ability to vary the signal
for more possible combinations than the strict on/off nature of digital.
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