One thing that has remained almost a constant in the evolution of computing is that the speeds of computers have always improved over the years.
We take whatever artificial walls have been built up and knock them down for the sake of performance.
In recent years it has all been about adding more cores to the system and less squeezing of the CPU chip for whatever speed that you can get out of it.
Moore’s Law
This is because we are coming to the end of the road for Moore’s Law.
This law stated that we will be able to double the amount of transistors on a CPU chip every two years.
Now instead of following that law, we have been adding more chips on the CPU.
The computer security company Kaspersky (read more on Kaspersky Anti-Virus Products) has taken it one step farther and has figured out a way to bypass the CPU and use the GPU to fight viruses.
GPU Protection
To update others who might not know, the letters GPU stand for Graphic Processor Unit.
The graphic processing unit is used just as the name suggests.
When you have a high powered CPU, modern games, video, and 3D software can still tax the system.
Even in the fastest CPU’s that are available today these programs still cause a system to start to lag.
Companies that make graphic cards figured out a way around this problem.
They made the video card have its own processor onboard.
This dedicated processor would handle the heavy graphic loads that were usually done by the CPU.
This makes the system go faster and become more efficient.
These cards were built for less general use and a more for a specific purpose.
This makes it so they are more streamlined and handle certain data loads better than a CPU can.
A company name Nvidia once again took it one step further and decided that they were going to make the card have the ability to be programmed by normal everyday programmers.
They gave programmers a set of API’s and let them go to work.
Kaspersky GPU Antivirus
Kaspersky decided to take advantage of this situation and created an antivirus product that would run off the graphics card.
The benefits that they have noticed during the testing of this procedure have been great and has really sped up the scanning process.
With the new software that has been tailored to the GPU they not only scan for new, already known, threats quicker but they can also scan for new potential threats that may be on your system.
Kaspersky plans to roll this software out to the public in the near future.
Anything that enhances the ability to stop attackers from ruining systems or stealing information should receive a warm welcome.
Do you think GPU-based antivirus is a good idea and will it be effective?
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