[toppy]

Why are they still called GPU? PPU (Parallel Processing Unit) sounds like a better name.

[Salgat]

Because they're filled with graphics specific silicon in addition to the GPGPU stuff.

[dist-epoch]

Because everybody understands what you mean when you say GPU.

Same with drone versus quad-copter, etc...

[palata]

To be pedantic, a quadcopter is a drone, but a drone is not necessarily a quadcopter.

[dragonwriter]

To be even more pedantic, "quadcopter" is a statement about airframe layout, and "drone" is a statement about control, and neither necessarily implies the other. You can have a non-drone quadcopter [0] or a non-quadcopter drone [1].

[0] e.g., https://www.jetsonaero.com/jetson-one

[1] e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136

[palata]

Haha touché :-).

[croes]

We still call smartphones phones but hardly use the phone functionality.

[speed_spread]

Vector Processing Unit would be more appropriate.

[KeplerBoy]

Why stop there? Matrix Processing Unit or Tensor Processing Unit if you want to trigger the physicists or are a fan of the google cloud.

[speed_spread]

Those things actually exists and are called NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Many recent ARM CPU have them (Apple, Qualcomm, etc.) and even new RISC-V CPU. They're different from GPU in being even more constrained in programming requiring usage of a fixed function vendor-supplied library.

[dragonwriter]

Those are a different thing (which may be part of a GPU, e.g., Nvidia's Tensor Cores, or separate, e.g., Apple Neural Engine.)

[nologic01]

Differential Geometric Processing Unit would do it for me.

[croes]

CPUs are PPUs too

[rational_indian]

A better name for GPUs would then be "Massively parallel processing units" or MPPUs.

[toppy]

Touche!

[duckmysick]

General Processing Unit