Glossary

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)