Nearly all computers have a graphics processing unit (GPU) that generates two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) graphics, images and video for graphical user interfaces, video games, visual imaging applications and video. The modern GPU is a highly parallel, highly multithreaded multiprocessor that is optimized for visual computing, and the use of GPUs for rendering graphics is well known.
In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the power of GPUs for parallel computations not involving graphics. Parallel algorithms running on GPUs can often achieve up to 100x speedup over similar CPU algorithms, with many existing applications for physics simulations, signal processing, financial modeling, neural networks, big data analysis and more.
Dr. Cindy Norris of the Department of Computer Science, in the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian, decided to include a component on GPU architecture and programming in her Computer Architecture course this semester. To provide hands on experience, she needed a computer with a powerful GPU that would allow her students to solve highly parallelizable problems. The machine was made possible by a generous donation from ECRS software, a local company, who has been a great supporter of the Department of Computer Science for many years.
“The computer provided by ECRS is giving students an opportunity to explore cutting edge technology,” Dr. Norris said. “In addition, GPU programming is a natural fit for a Computer Architecture course because students cannot write high performance GPU code without a sophisticated understanding of how the threads and data in their parallel application map to the cores and memory of the GPU.”
ECRS is an award-winning, innovative company bringing together retail software, hardware and services to create solutions in retail automation. ECRS also supports the department with two scholarships annually to incoming freshmen and in 2013, ECRS provided all Computer Science graduate students with a new computer.
ECRS also consistently supports AppHack events hosted at Appalachian. AppHack is a 24-hour long code festival held yearly as a part of a shared effort to increase tech entrepreneurship, tech savviness and code literacy worldwide.
"ECRS has been a strong and consistent supporter of the Department of Computer Science. They have hired our graduates, supported our students through scholarships, and with this gift offered them opportunities to work with cutting edge technology. I'm so pleased that we have this wonderful partnership with the company," said Neva J. Specht, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian.
To learn more about the department, visit www.compsci.appstate.edu and to learn more about AppHack events visit www.cs.appstate.edu/apphack.
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Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2017
By Dr. Rahman Tashakkori and Ellen Gwin Burnette
BOONE, N.C.
About the Department of Computer Science
Appalachian’s Department of Computer Science provides a rigorous, high-quality education that prepares students for the computing industry or graduate education. It offers a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, which is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, and a Master of Science degree in computer science.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, two stand-alone academic programs, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. Our values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of our students as global citizens. There are approximately 5,850 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at cas.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The transformational Appalachian experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and embrace diversity and difference. As one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina system, Appalachian enrolls about 18,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
From left to right: Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, Chair of Computer Science; Dr. Neva J. Specht, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Norris, Professor of Computer Science; Mr. Mark Noble, VP of Development, ECRS and Michel Dougherty, CS System Administrator. Photo by Ellen Gwin Burnette.
From left to right: Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, Chair of Computer Science; Dr. Neva J. Specht, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Norris, Professor of Computer Science; Mr. Mark Noble, VP of Development, ECRS and Michel Dougherty, CS System Administrator. Photo by Ellen Gwin Burnette.