GPUs can do a limited set of computations, but they're highly parallel vector/matrix processors with massive memory bandwidth.Is a GPU effectively an array processor, or suchlike?
That's what I sort of suspected, from what was being said. My experience of twenty years ago was that that sort of thing was an expensive special purpose box about the size of an old PC system unit. Called an "array processor." Why would I expect that something which was the size of a PC back then would take any more than a board, if not indeed a single chip, today!
Or part of a chip. The SSE units in Intel and the 3DNow! units in AMD are the same kind of thing, only a little more general purpose, and thus slower, than a GPU. The Cell processor in a Playstation 3 has seven such units (actually 8, but one deactivated to increase yield) in addition to a generic PowerPC CPU core. IBM is building the world's first petaflop supercomputer using Cell chips.
Seymour cray used to say what would you want to plow a field, 2 strong oxen or 1,024 chickens. The problem with that is we can make a 16-legged chicken these days that's stronger than both of his oxen.
Maybe not even that big. The PC I used in the '80s, all of its software, all of my data, and even the PC itself -- in an emulated form -- can fit on a microSD card that could be hidden under the stamp on a post card.
As one who used to work for Kubota Graphics with their (at the time) amazing Denali graphics subsystem...I know exactly what you mean.
As one who used to work for Kubota Graphics with their (at the time) amazing Denali graphics subsystem...I know exactly what you mean.