Computer Science · A1.1 Computer Hardware and Operation

A1.1.3 — CPU vs GPU: Architecture, Performance and Cooperation

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IB DP Computer Science — A1 Computer fundamentals — Computer hardware and operation | HL | A1.1.3

📋 What You Will Learn

  • Explain the contrasting design philosophies of CPUs (latency-oriented) and GPUs (throughput-oriented)
  • Compare their core architectures, processing power, memory access and power efficiency
  • Match usage scenarios to the processor best suited to them
  • Explain how CPUs and GPUs work together: task division, data sharing and coordinated execution
  • Evaluate which processor (or combination) fits a given workload

🏎️ Why This Matters A CPU is a sports car: it gets one passenger anywhere extremely fast, whatever the route. A GPU is a fleet of buses: each bus is slow, but together they move thousands of passengers along fixed routes per hour. Neither "wins" — the right choice depends on whether you are moving one VIP through unpredictable streets or a stadium crowd along a motorway.

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More notes on A1.1 Computer Hardware and Operation

  1. 01A1.1.9 — Cloud Computing Services: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
  2. 02A1.1.1 — CPU Components: Functions and Interactions
  3. 03A1.1.8 — The Concept of Compression
  4. 04A1.1.5 — The Fetch, Decode and Execute Cycle
  5. 05A1.1.4 — Primary Memory: RAM, ROM, Cache and Registers
  6. 06A1.1.6 — Pipelining in Multi-Core Architectures
  7. 07A1.1.7 — Secondary Memory Storage: Internal and External
  8. 08A1.1.2 — The Role of the GPU