[angelbob]

GPGPU stuff -- that is, using your graphics processor for random programming tasks. While something like <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_home.html>CUDA</a&...; reduces the need to write assembly-like code, it also reduces the available speed substantially.

For that matter, CUDA (and ATI's Bare-Metal Interface, which is similar) is more assembly-like than C-like in many ways. So even using the higher-level available language is still pretty much like assembly.

You tend to only write these things when you're going to be running a lot of elements through, so almost everything you do in these platforms is inner-loop, or you'd be using a different tool. So even small speed-ups tend to matter.