What is a GPU/Accelerator?

• A. A software library for graphics processing.
• B. An add-in PCIe or mezzanine device for compute acceleration.
• C. An integrated motherboard component.
• D. A power supply module.

Answer: (B)

A GPU or accelerator is a hardware device designed to perform specific compute tasks much faster by doing many operations in parallel, relieving the main CPU. In data center systems, these are typically installed as expansion cards that plug into a PCIe slot or a mezzanine connector, providing dedicated processing power for workloads like graphics, AI inference, and scientific computations. That’s why the description of a card that attaches to PCIe or a mezzanine and accelerates compute best fits. The other options describe software libraries, integrated motherboard components, or power supplies, which do not offer the dedicated parallel compute hardware that accelerators provide.