2012-09-16
I've been using CUDA and PyCUDA as GPGPU platforms for a few years now. They enable access to the incredible computational power of graphics cards through a simple C-like language. A recent Nvidia graphics card is nevertheless required in order to execute CUDA code. Some computers may not include a Nvidia GPU, but rather an AMD/ATI card or even an integrated graphics processor. Those computers thus cannot execute a CUDA program.
2012-07-02
I've been looking for a good and free Python IDE for Windows for a long time. I first used Eclipse and Pydev, but Eclipse is a bit of a "usine à gaz". I tried Spyder but it crashed too often and it was not flexible enough. I ended up using Notepad++, a really fast and powerful text editor, with the great command-line interpreter IPython. Notepad++ is extremely light to use, opens within a second, and contains most important features a Python developer wants (syntax highlighting, automatic indentation, code folding...). However, it does not include a native way for running Python scripts. On the other hand, IPython is a widely used and extremely powerful Python interpreter that is well adapted for scientific computing. It allows to run scripts in a command-line interface, and offers the possibility to continue an interactive session afterwards. It also includes a debugger and many more features.