What is the difference between CUDA core and CPU core?

Question

I worked a bit with CUDA, and a lot with the CPU, and i\'m trying to understand what is the difference between the two. My I5 processor has 4 cores and cost $200 and my NVid

Answer 1

They are now in principle the same as CPU cores. It isn't long ago that this wasn't true for example they have been unable to process integer operands in 2005.

When comparing the CPU Core complexity of your 2-core i5 keep in mind that the original 80386 CPU had just about 275K transistors while a Core2Duo has about 230 Million. 1000 times more, so the numbers fit well.

The biggest difference is the memory handling which becomes even more complicated then the good old days when we need segmentation registers. There is no virtual memory etc. and it is the very thin bottleneck when you try to port your normal CPU programs but the real problem is that non local memory access is very expensive 400-800 cycles. They are using a technique that outside the GPU world only the SUN Niagara T1/T2 general purpose CPU had. While waiting for a memory access they schedule different set of threads with other instructions that are ready (called wraps). But if all the threads do is non-linear jumping around your data your performance just fails.