nvcc does: NVIDIA's CUDA compiler that produces PTX and SASS

How can a single software make your computer super fast for certain tasks?

Imagine you're trying to run a video game that uses special graphics cards. Normally, your computer struggles to keep up, making the game laggy and unplayable.

Think of NVCC as a translator that helps your computer understand a special language for graphics cards. This translator turns complex instructions into a simpler form that the graphics card can quickly process, making the game run smoothly.

Example

Without NVCC, your computer struggles to run a demanding game. With NVCC, the same game runs smoothly, thanks to the translator turning complex instructions into simpler ones.

Remember this

NVCC translates complex instructions into simpler ones for graphics cards, making demanding tasks like gaming run smoothly.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

SASS is: the actual machine code that runs on NVIDIA GPU hardware

SASS: compiled machine code executing on NVIDIA GPU hardware

Parallel Thread Execution

PTX is an intermediate GPU instruction set used in Nvidia's CUDA

a Triton kernel is

Can your phone run faster with a different brain?

CUDA

CUDA enables parallel computation on GPUs

Triton differs from CUDA

Why does a super-fast computer sometimes run slower than a regular one?

Nvidia

Ever wondered how video games run so smoothly on your computer?

Swipe through 100 ML concepts daily

Open Pocket Polymath