Vector Processor

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Vector Processor Mean?

A vector processor is a central processing unit that can work on an entire vector in one instruction. The instruction to the processor is in the form of one complete vector instead of its element. Vector processors are used because they reduce the draw and interpret bandwidth owing to the fact that fewer instructions must be fetched.

Advertisements

A vector processor is also known as an array processor.

Techopedia Explains Vector Processor

Vector processors are the technology used in modern computers and central processing units because many performance optimization methodologies are applied in them. To reduce store and load latency, memory banks are utilized and in case of large multimedia applications, data parallelism is being applied. Vector instruction sets are designed over an innovative architecture which saves memory and time for a machine. The high on-chip memory microchips used for vector processing are expensive, so the design cost of such processors is usually very high.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.