One of the biggest developments in computer hardware in the last few yearshas been the introduction of a new generation of Graphics Processing Units(GPUs) with more power and flexibility than the CPU. Not only have GPUsrevolutionized graphics programming, now developers are starting to use themwherever substantial processing power is required, for instance in financial andmedical applications. This use of GPUs for more general purposes is referredto as General Purpose computation on GPUs(GPGPU).GPU Gems 2 continues the format of the first edition, with forty six chaptersthat detail cutting-edge programming techniques from some of the world's topexperts. It goes beyond the first volume, however, in presenting in book formfor the first time methods for GPGPU programming. This book offers thereader comprehensive knowledge for harnessing the enormous capabilities ofmodern GPUs. GPGPU has the potential to bring huge changes to the waycomputers work and applications are written. (Rick Rashid of MicrosoftResearch talked about GPGPU in his keynote at OOPSLA 2004.)N.B. - the character on the cover is a mermaid named Nalu, and is thecurrent focus of NVIDIA's marketing campaigns. She will be immediatelyrecognizable to the target audience.