USING GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNITS IN CONTROL AND/OR DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS

摘要

A graphics processing unit (GPU) can be used in control and/or data processing systems that require high speed data processing with low input/output latency (i.e., fast transfers into and out of the GPU). Data and/or control information can be transferred directly to and/or from the GPU without involvement of a central processing unit (CPU) or a host memory. That is, in some embodiments, data to be processed by the GPU can be received by the GPU directly from a data source device, bypassing the CPU and host memory of the system. Additionally or alternatively, data processed by the GPU can be sent directly to a data destination device from the GPU, bypassing the CPU and host memory. In some embodiments, the GPU can be the main processing unit of the system, running independently and concurrently with the CPU.

主权项

1. A method of using a graphics processing unit in a control or data processing system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a graphics processing unit, a first instruction from a central processing unit coupled to the graphics processing unit to allocate a region of memory of the graphics processing unit as a data store; receiving, by the graphics processing unit, a second instruction from a data source device to store information in the region of memory; generating, by the graphics processing unit, processed data based on the information stored in the region of memory; storing, by the graphics processing unit, the processed data in the region of memory; and receiving, by the graphics processing unit, a third instruction from a data destination device to read the processed data from the region of memory and cause the processed data to be transmitted to the data destination device.