Earlier quoted context omitted.
So it could run Doom?
Yes: https://github.com/robertcprice/nCPU?tab=readme-ov-file#doom...
Oh I forgot to Doom scroll.
A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
41–50 of 144 posts
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
This CPU simulator does not attempt to achieve the maximum speed that could be obtained when simulating a CPU on a GPU. For that a completely different approach would be needed, e.g. by implementing something akin to qemu, where each CPU instruction would be translated into a graphic shader program. On many older GPUs, it is impossible or difficult to launch a graphic program from inside a graphic program (instead of…
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If its bindless and pre-compiled why not? What's a faster way?
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#43Being able to perform precise math in an LLM is important, glad to see this.
That would be cool. A way to read cpu assembly bytecode and then think in it.
It's slower than real cpu code obviously but still crazy fast for 'thinking' about it. They wouldn't need to actually simulate an entire program in a never ending hot loop like a real computer. Just a few loops would explain a lot about a process and calculate a lot of precise information.
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#44A fun experiment but I wonder how many out there seriously think we could ever completely rid ourselves of the CPU. It seems to be a rising sentiment. The cost of communicating information through space is dealt with in fundamentally different ways here. On the CPU it is addressed directly. The actual latency is minimized as much as possible, usually by predicting the future in various ways and keeping the spatial ex…
> I wonder how many out there seriously think we could ever completely rid ourselves of the CPU.
How do you class systems like the PS5 that have an APU plugged into GDDR instead of regular RAM? The primary remaining issue is the limited memory capacity.
I wonder if we might see a system with GPU class HBM on the package in lieu of VRAM coupled with regular RAM on the board for the CPU portion?
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#45Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#46“A CPU that runs entirely on the GPU”
I imagine a carefully crafted set of programming primitives used to build up the abstraction of a CPU…
“Every ALU operation is a trained neural network.”
Oh… oh. Fun. Just not the type of “interesting” I was hoping for.
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#47A fun experiment but I wonder how many out there seriously think we could ever completely rid ourselves of the CPU. It seems to be a rising sentiment. The cost of communicating information through space is dealt with in fundamentally different ways here. On the CPU it is addressed directly. The actual latency is minimized as much as possible, usually by predicting the future in various ways and keeping the spatial ex…
I see us not getting rid of CPU, but CPU and GPU being eventually consolidated in one system of heterogeneous computing units.
Agreed. Much like “RISC is gonna replace everything” - it didn’t. Because the CPU makers incorporated lessons from RISC into their designs.
I can see the same happening to the CPU. It will just take on the appropriate functionality to keep all the compute in the same chip.
It’s gonna take awhile because Nvidia et al like their moats.
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see us not getting rid of CPU, but CPU and GPU being eventually consolidated in one system of heterogeneous computing units.
Agreed. Much like “RISC is gonna replace everything” - it didn’t. Because the CPU makers incorporated lessons from RISC into their designs. I can see the same happening to the CPU. It will just take on the appropriate functionality to keep all the compute in the same chip. It’s gonna take awhile because Nvidia et al like their moats.
> It will just take on the appropriate functionality to keep all the compute in the same chip.
So, an iGPU/APU? Those exist already. Regardless, the most GPU-like CPU architecture in common use today is probably SPARC, with its 8-way SMT. Add per-thread vector SIMD compute to something like that, and you end up with something that has broadly similar performance constraints to an iGPU.
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on addition and subtraction, 625000x slower or so than a 2.5ghz cpu
So it could run Doom?
Doom it's easy. Better the ZMachine with an interpreter
based on DFrotz, or another port. Then a game can even run under a Game Boy.
For a similar case, check Eforth+Subleq. If this guy can emulate subleq CPU under a GPU (something like 5 lines under C for the implementation, the rest it's C headers and the file opening function), it can run Eforth and maybe Sokoban.
Re: A CPU that runs entirely on GPU
#50“A CPU that runs entirely on the GPU” I imagine a carefully crafted set of programming primitives used to build up the abstraction of a CPU… “Every ALU operation is a trained neural network.” Oh… oh. Fun. Just not the type of “interesting” I was hoping for.
Isn't it interesting it doesn't instantly crash from a precision error? That sounds carefully crafted to me.