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Exploring Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)

Exploring Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)

Overall Computational Power of GPUs

  • โšก Incredible Calculation Speed: Modern GPUs can perform tens of trillions of calculations per second (e.g., 36 trillion for Cyberpunk 2077).
  • ๐ŸŒ Human Comparison: Achieving this manually would require the equivalent of over 4,400 Earths full of people, each doing one calculation every second.

GPU vs. CPU

  • ๐Ÿšข Cargo Ship vs. Airplane Analogy: GPUs are like cargo ships (massive capacity, slower), and CPUs are like jets (fast, versatile, fewer tasks at once).
  • โš–๏ธ Different Strengths: CPUs handle operating systems, flexible tasks, and fewer but more complex instructions. GPUs excel at huge amounts of simple, repetitive calculations.
  • ๐Ÿ”€ Parallel vs. General Purpose: GPUs are less flexible but highly parallel, CPUs are more general-purpose and can run a wide variety of programs and instructions.

GPU Architecture & Components (GA102 Example)

  • ๐Ÿ’ฝ Central GPU Die (GA102): A large chip with 28.3 billion transistors organized into Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), and cores.
  • ๐Ÿ—๏ธ Hierarchical Structure: GA102 has 7 GPCs โ†’ 12 SMs per GPC โ†’ 4 Warps per SM โ†’ 32 CUDA Per Wrap and 4 Tensor Per Warmp and 1 Ray Tracing Per GPC.
  • ๐Ÿ”ข Types of Cores:
    • โš™๏ธ CUDA Cores: Handle basic arithmetic (addition, multiplication) most commonly used in gaming.
    • ๐Ÿงฉ Tensor Cores: Perform massive matrix calculations for AI and neural networks.
    • ๐Ÿ’Ž Ray Tracing Cores: Specialized for lighting and reflection calculations in real-time graphics.

Manufacturing & Binning

  • ๐Ÿ”ง Shared Chip Design: Different GPU models (e.g., 3080, 3090, 3090 Ti) share the same GA102 design.
  • ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ Defects & Binning: Manufacturing imperfections result in some cores being disabled. This leads to different โ€œtiersโ€ of the same GPU architecture.

CUDA Core Internals

  • โž• Simple Calculator Design: Each CUDA core is basically a tiny calculator that does fused multiply-add (FMA) and a few other operations.
  • ๐Ÿ’ป Common Operations: Primarily handles 32-bit floating-point and integer arithmetic. More complex math (division, trignometry) is done by fewer, special function units.

Memory Systems: GDDR6X & GDDR7

  • ๐Ÿ’พ Graphics Memory: GDDR6X chips (by Micron) feed terabytes of data per second into the GPUโ€™s thousands of cores.
  • ๐Ÿš€ High Bandwidth: GPU memory operates at huge bandwidths (over 1 terabyte/s) compared to typical CPU memory (~64 GB/s).
  • ๐Ÿ”ข Beyond Binary: GDDR6X and GDDR7 use multiple voltage levels (PAM-4 and PAM-3) to encode more data per signal, increasing transfer rates.
  • ๐Ÿ—๏ธ Future Memory Tech: Micron also develops HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) for AI accelerators, stacking memory chips in 3D, greatly boosting capacity and speed while reducing power.

Parallel Computing Concepts (SIMD & SIMT)

  • โ™ป๏ธ Embarrassingly Parallel: Tasks like graphics rendering, Bitcoin mining, or AI training are easily split into millions of independent calculations.
  • ๐Ÿ“œ Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD): Apply the same instruction to many data points at onceโ€”perfect for transforming millions of vertices in a 3D scene.
  • ๐Ÿ”“ From SIMD to SIMT: Newer GPUs use Single Instruction Multiple Threads (SIMT), allowing threads to progress independently and handle complex branching more efficiently.

Thread & Warp Organization

  • ๐Ÿ“ฆ Thread Hierarchy: Threads โ†’ Warps (groups of 32 threads) โ†’ Thread Blocks โ†’ Grids.
  • ๐ŸŽ›๏ธ Gigathread Engine: Manages the allocation of thread blocks to streaming multiprocessors, optimizing parallel processing.

Practical Applications

  • ๐ŸŽฎ Video Games: GPUs transform coordinates, apply textures, shading, and handle complex rendering pipelines. Millions of identical operations on different vertices and pixels are done in parallel.
  • โ‚ฟ Bitcoin Mining: GPUs can run the SHA-256 hashing algorithm in parallel many millions of times per second. Though now replaced by ASIC miners, GPUs were initially very efficient at this.
  • ๐Ÿค– AI & Neural Networks: Tensor cores accelerate matrix multiplications critical for training neural nets and powering generative AI.
  • ๐Ÿ’ก Ray Tracing: Specialized cores handle ray tracing calculations for realistic lighting and reflections in real-time graphics.

Micronโ€™s Role & Advancements

  • ๐Ÿญ Micron Memory Chips: GDDR6X and future GDDR7 designed by Micron power high-speed data transfers on GPUs.
  • ๐Ÿ”ฎ Innovations in Memory: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI chips stacks DRAM vertically, creating high-capacity, high-throughput solutions at lower energy costs.
  • ๐Ÿ“š Technological Marvel: Modern graphics cards are a blend of advanced materials, clever architectures, and innovative manufacturing. They enable astonishing levels of visual realism, parallel computation, and AI capabilities.

How do Graphics Cards Work? Exploring GPU Architecture

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