Graphics processing units (GPUs) are increasingly being eyed as a way to accelerate computational workloads. GPUs offer a high-powered, low-energy consuming means to complement a stressed CPU in a busy server.

Unfortunately, many systems often have limited GPU capabilities. But that is about to change.

IBM is putting Nvidia's Tesla 20-series GPUs in the newest version of its iDataPlex HPC server. IBM made the announcement earlier this month.

An eWEEK article covering the announcement reports:

“This really makes GPUs a mainstream [technology].”

In a video presentation, Scott Denham, a member of IBM's Deep Computing technical team, said the IT industry needs to find a way to meet business demands for more performance from their systems, but at less cost.

“Many of our customers are constrained by the amount of power and cooling they can get into their existing facilities,” Denham said. “They have a demand for a much higher level of computation to implement advanced algorithms.”

The only real options for doing that are to build larger buildings, bring in larger power supplies or find another way of doing things. “GPU technology is an ideal way to get this much higher level of computational ability in this same power footprint as the existing systems while increasing throughput four to 10 times,” Denham said.