Is it possible to execute an application(not graphical) completely on gpu?

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IS gpu present in all computer and is it possible to execute an application(Not graphical) completely on GPU?

What I have tried:

if it is possible any sample of code to do it that may be in any languague

Posted 19-Feb-16 6:35am

NoorKaximi

Updated 19-Feb-16 9:19am

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2 solutions

Solution 1

Quote:
IS gpu present in all computer

Many Yes, all No.

Quote:
is it possible to execute an application completely on GPU?

The answer is NO because the GPU is a slave processor and don't have access to hardware.

Quote:
is it possible to execute an application (Not graphical) on GPU?

The GPU is tailored for massively parallel calculus, so any part of an app that is heavily parallel can by efficiently off loaded to GPU.
The main CPU simply offload computing on the GPU, nothing else. Simply the GPU being general purpose, it also handle non graphical stuff.

Until the OS directly handle the GPU usage, you will always have something in main CPU to manage I/O and user interaction.

Posted 19-Feb-16 7:02am

Patrice T

Updated 19-Feb-16 11:30am

v4

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 15:21pm

I hate to say that:
Not only your answer totally wrong, but you tried to answer based on your own lack of awareness of the related technologies. Not only it is possible, but this is also a big field of computing, so their is a good number of professionals working nearly exclusively at such kind of computing, as their main job.

Please see Solution 2.

—SA

[no name] 19-Feb-16 16:30pm

That is really something hard from your side. I think it would be similar if I asked you before 20 years "is it possible to run an app on a 386 CoProcessor". It was not possible and it is also not possible to run an "app" on a gpu "directly". So the answer here is maybe not perfect but also not "totally wrong" I think. Only my mind.
Bruno

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 17:38pm

Do you mean "387 CoProcessor" ?
I agree with you, it is what I had in mind for my answer.

[no name] 19-Feb-16 17:42pm

Yep sorry it is a Long time. The 387 Co for 386 and so on ;)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 17:45pm

Sorry about that, but this is about what happens today and attempted to answer today, so your past example is not quite adequate to that. If you abstract out from history and information available today, this kind of thinking would be good enough, but not at this moment and reality.

Probably you were talking about 387 co-processor, not 386, when 387 was a slave of 386. That is different architecture where 387 could not run as independently as some GPU can, so the answer "no", "impossible" would be good enough, if answered to your past question. Those things are essentially different.

This is all about answering the question without having not enough expertise in the subject; and this is the kind of mistake many of us do, so it's not so big mistake. Sometimes you answer "from general consideration", and sometimes it can be very useful; your thinking might work and even suggest new approach. In some other cases, you just put yourself in a funny position. So what? It happened to me sometimes, so I got some 2s, too (it happens very often anyway, without any reasons :-). Big deal! I just removed my purely-qualified answers after I was convinced and said "thank you" to the one who criticized me. But there was a number of cases where my "speculations from scratch" made a good useful advice. Still, it's better to be careful and check available resource, Google and consult resources on the topic before trying to answer.

—SA

[no name] 19-Feb-16 18:03pm

I'm using CUDA for Matrix calculations. I can only say it is a crutch -yes, a very performant one- but it remains a crutch. Much more unorganized than the time one had to decide for 387 Emulator or not.

[Edit]
Btw:
The other Problem is to explain a customer why there is a Need to have such a graphic Card.

And the biggest Problem: virtualized Servers.... please where is the gpu.

This as a view from practical side ;)

[/Edit]

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 18:18pm

Crutch? I called it a "weird paradox", but I did not completely express what I think about it. Well, I tend to agree with you, but this is a crutch of whole technosphere. Have you heard of this term? (No, this is not " online digital environment" you can find in Wikipedia; its name was based on earlier coined term.) Technosphere is a subsystem of ecosphere considered in ecological aspects, a sphere of human culture and human-generated environment. Technical systems are created, survive or die, compete, collaborate, spread and make compromises; and this is a pure natural process, so not all phenomena are consciously controlled by people (should I rather say "not controlled"?) so resulting environment does not look rational. GPU is just one of excesses of this natural development.

By the way, there was a common misconception (and it is still there) that biological organisms are highly "rationally" build and efficient. In fact, they are full of crutches. I could easily point out some of them...

—SA

[no name] 19-Feb-16 18:21pm

Sorry we where parallel, while I added something "important"(?) to my comment. I will read your message and try to respond.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 18:24pm

Nothing to sorry about; this is all interesting talking...
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 18:19pm

On your [Edit]:
Good point. I hear you.
—SA

[no name] 19-Feb-16 18:24pm

*lol* I stop for the Moment not make it more confusing. Thank you for this at the moment ;)
Bruno

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 18:38pm

My NO is because the OP asked "is it possible to execute an application(Not graphical) completely on GPU?"
Completely on GPU imply nothing on main CPU, which imply the GPU being able to do system calls directly and handle the windows message queue.
Last time I checked it was not possible.
Relying on a piece of code in CPU break the "completely on GPU" part.

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 17:34pm

I edited my answer, do you like it better now ?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 17:46pm

No, because it still says "no", which is not true — sorry. I just explained myself more, in a comment to Bruno's comment.
—SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 19:00pm

I think this is a somewhat formalist picking on the question; the essence of the question is not about "completely". One could formulate it more precisely, something about independent or parallel execution. I think the essence of the issue is the possibility of something like GPGPU. Most questions are not fully accurate, but it would be a mistake to answer fully formally in all cases. This way, pointing out GPGPU is productive, and just saying "no" without "but" is not quite...

I and think the question itself is productive enough. Let's say someone never heard about GPGPU, but this is this person's own idea. What's bad about it? I up-voted the question this time. A pointer to right direction could be useful. You had a number of good answers, but this one… — thank you for your understanding.

—SA

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 19:05pm

That is why I splited my answer. the No for "completely" and another for the "not graphical"

[no name] 19-Feb-16 19:01pm

I agree partly with you, but please a "1" is very/too hard, especially with your weight!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Feb-16 19:10pm

Sorry. All experts, after certain point number level have the same voting weight. I don't pick on answers often, but there are cases where I think it's useful. Remember, helping the authors of the questions and not confusing or misleading them is more important. Mind you, I receive massive down-voting attacks on a regular basis, without any comments and probably no any reasons, withing the same minute, which does not suggests weighted rational voting. In some cases, I saw my mistake and changed or removed the answer. But again, when I receive motivating comment on a down-vote, I consider it seriously and either stand for my answer, or admit my mistake and say "thank you" to the one who criticized it. I think this is a normal process. (Frankly, there are some members who just full around here and don't deserve any comments, but this is far from the cases we are discussing here.)
—SA

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 19:54pm

I understand your feeling, I have also been the target of massive Downvotes a couple times.

Patrice T 19-Feb-16 19:53pm

When there is a vote, "1", "2" or "3" are DownVote and cost 16, "4" and "5" are UpVotes and earn 40, "3" is not neutral.

[no name] 20-Feb-16 5:23am

Now it is a 3 :) and 3 _is_ neutral (should be!). I asked this more than one time (to the CP boss, Mr. Maunder) to be sure and he confirmed.

Patrice T 20-Feb-16 5:39am

I know 3 was neutral sometime ago but it is not.
I agree the 3 should be neutral.
I just checked, the -16 in reputation is not canceled.

[no name] 20-Feb-16 5:53am

Bad, maybe worth to inform the boss. I will give my small 5 to compensate a Little bit.

Patrice T 20-Feb-16 6:17am

Thank you

[no name] 20-Feb-16 6:37am

This is ok. I hope it was not you who vote a 1 on SAK's answer, which is also a good answer ;)

Patrice T 20-Feb-16 6:59am

No I didn't

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-19T09:19:00

Not only this is possible, but there is whole field in computing activity called GPGPU: General-purpose computing on graphics processing units — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[^].

Of course, this approach is one of the weird paradoxes of technological development in the computing world: the technologies initially designed purely for serving displays are now sometimes used for serving up the general-purpose calculations, providing more computing power than the host system's CPUs. However, in real practice this approach is used in a number of areas. Notably, the application leveraging the power of GPUs, still allow them to show graphics on screen, in parallel to the GPGPU operation.

One of the most used technologies of this sort is NVIDIA CUDA:
CUDA — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[^],
Parallel Programming and Computing Platform | CUDA | NVIDIA|NVIDIA[^].

As to the code samples, few code sample from few Quick Answers hardly can help you. You have to learn this field well, to understand how to use it. For CUDA, for example, you can find a lot of material, and even study courses with code samples and homework assignments, like this one: CS 179: GPU Programming[^].

You need to study the subject independently, to a reasonable depth, to be able to ask more specific and qualified questions.

—SA