high performance computing on graphics processing units: hgpu.org

The purpose of this coffee shop read is to attempt to highlight the criticality of videogames as a component of the "Convergence" of some amazing technologies (in particular: Cloud, Gaming/MMOG, Gamification and BigData) that is clear to many inside the IT world. I am not a deep technical "guru" I am a businessman that seeks to understand these technologies in order to find a mean by which they can be leveraged ultimately for commercial gain. This short book is the output from my investigation of videogames and Massively Multi-user Online Games (MMOG) and is written in as much a chronological order as could be achieved to try to take other business, non-IT, and non-programming literate readers on the journey I took which resulted in a deepening of my understanding of why the once humble graphics processing capabilities have become part of the bedrock for our future exploitation of computer processing as a whole. In doing so it is hoped this short book has answered some seemingly simple questions during the journey, namely: Why GPU’s were developed? Why triangles are so important to graphics processing? Why high degrees of parallelism are becoming increasingly important? How GPU’s are being utilized to deliver significant gains in industries and market sectors far beyond the original design criteria for the GPU? and Why GPU’s cannot wholly replace CPU’s and that the future is most likely a symbiosis of the two capabilities leveraging each for their inherent strengths?