Introduction

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is an electronic circuit that specializes in processing data to render images from polygonal primitives. Although they were designed to carry out rendering images, the GPU has continued to evolve, becoming more complex and efficient in serving both the real-time and offline rendering community and in performing any scientific computations. GPUs are characterized by a highly parallel structure, which allows it to manipulate large datasets in an efficient manner. This feature combined with the rapid improvement in graphics hardware performance and the extent of programmability caught the attention of the scientific world with the possibility of using GPU for purposes other than just rendering images. Traditional GPUs are fixed function devices where the whole rendering pipeline is built on hardware. This restricts graphics programmers, leading them to use different, efficient and high-quality rendering algorithms. Hence, a new GPU was built...