Originally posted by elephantinc
So do you think this might be a good idea? Do you think it is a subject that's open to discussion rather than just stating facts?
Yes, the intorduction to parallel processing sets the scene with history, discuss the process of "standard" parrallel processing, then go onto the GPU and its stream processing and limiting factors of uning this over other methods say genetic algorithms as they are limited in stream (if I remember correctly!).
The GPU is also limited in its instruction set over a CPU and therefore cannot "do" everyting a CPU can faster. There are lots of examples of advantages and disadvantages of the GPU for processing. In effect when it comes to a lot of stuff (encoding video, rendering etc) your taking advantage of its vector processing, thought this may not be to all applicaitions.
There are also power issues, not too sure of the difference (good to look up) is processing on the GPU watt/instruction more economical? Dont know the answer to this but worth a look.
Propose the idea and possibly package it as "Will the emergence of GPU processing mean the demise of the CPU" or something like that.
You may even get into giving CUDA a go, I did except I managed to make my screen black and white and could not get it back to colour untill I uninstalled it, even with a qualified quadro GFX card!
I would run the idea past the tutor, to get a feel for what they are after.
Cheers
Steve
"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle