Audio and the Graphics Processing Unit

In recent years, the development of programmable graphics pipelines has placed the power of parallel computation in the hands of consumers. Systems developers are now paying attention to the general purpose computational ability of these graphics processor units, or GPUs, and are using them in novel ways. This paper examines using pixel shaders for executing audio algorithms. We compare GPU performance to CPU performance, discuss problems encountered, and suggest new directions for supporting the needs of the audio community.