GPU (disambiguation)

GPU may be an abbreviation for:

Computer science

Power engineering

Other

Graphics processing unit

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 image processing, and their highly parallel structure makes them more effective than general-purpose CPUs for algorithms where the processing of large blocks of visual data is done in parallel. In a personal computer, a GPU can be present on a video card, or it can be embedded 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 world's first GPU", or Graphics Processing Unit. It was presented as 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.

Central processing unit

A central processing unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions. The term has been used in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s. Traditionally, the term "CPU" refers to a processor, more specifically to its processing unit and control unit (CU), distinguishing these core elements of a computer from external components such as main memory and I/O circuitry.

The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains almost unchanged. Principal components of a CPU include the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that performs arithmetic and logic operations, processor registers that supply operands to the ALU and store the results of ALU operations, and a control unit that fetches instructions from memory and "executes" them by directing the coordinated operations of the ALU, registers and other components.

As Fast As

As Fast As is an alternative rock band from Portland, Maine, USA, that includes the former Rustic Overtones keyboard player Spencer Albee, who along with Haché Horchatta and Zach Jones were members of the power pop group Rocktopus. Their first album, Open Letter to the Damned, was released on Octone Records in May 2006. The album's hit song "Florida Sunshine" was played on an episode of CSI: Miami, as well as in the promotional advertisements for the series. As Fast As left Octone Records due to "a difference in creative vision". On March 11, 2008, the band released Destroy the Plastique Man independently. The band stopped playing in August 2008, but despite Albee being busy with his new project Spencer and the School Spirit Mafia, the band reformed for a one-off concert at The Asylum in Portland on July 18, 2009, and released a new album, AFA For Effort, on June 23.

The band's line-up consists of: