Glossary

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The principal hardware of any digital computer. The CPU constitutes the essential electronic circuitry that interprets and executes instructions from the software or other hardware. Also called a central processor, main processor, or microprocessor.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

A graphics processing unit is a specialised electronic circuit that is designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory for the creation of images, intended for output to a display device, in a frame buffer.

Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)

In computing, remote direct memory access (RDMA) is a direct memory access from the memory of one computer into that of another without involving either one’s operating system. This permits high-throughput, low-latency networking, which is especially useful in massively parallel computer clusters.

GPUDirect RDMA

GPUDirect RDMA is a technology introduced in Kepler-class GPUs and CUDA 5.0 that enables a direct path for data exchange between the GPU and a third-party peer device using standard features of PCI Express. Examples of third-party devices are: network interfaces, video acquisition devices, storage adapters. (https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/gpudirect-rdma/index.html)