Vector processor

Computer Science Fundamentals; Computational Infrastructure
noun phrase

Definition: A processor whose instruction set is designed to operate efficiently on vectors, that is, one-dimensional arrays of data, unlike scalar processors that operate on single data items [Zhong et al. 2024].

Example in context: “In this paper, we design a vector processor based on the RISC-V architecture to significantly improve the performance of CNN operations…” [Zhong et al. 2024]

Synonym: array processor
Related terms: SIMD processor; vectorized computation; scalar processor