.cu

Extension: CUDA Source Code File

Developer: NVIDIA

A .cu file is a CUDA Source Code file, created using NVIDIA’s CUDA parallel computing platform. CUDA harnesses the immense processing power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to significantly accelerate computationally intensive tasks, far beyond their traditional graphics rendering capabilities. These tasks often involve complex calculations in fields like scientific computing, machine learning, and data analysis. The code within a .cu file utilizes a specialized extension of C++, incorporating keywords and functions specific to GPU programming. This allows developers to write code that runs efficiently across multiple GPU cores, achieving significant speedups compared to traditional CPU-based computations. Understanding the intricacies of GPU architecture and parallel programming is crucial for effectively utilizing the full potential of CUDA and writing optimized .cu files.

Because .cu files are essentially C++ code with CUDA extensions, you’ll need a suitable code editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports CUDA development to open and work with them. Popular choices include NVIDIA’s own Nsight IDE, Visual Studio with the CUDA Toolkit installed, or other editors like VS Code with appropriate extensions. Simply opening the file in a standard text editor will show you the code, but you won’t be able to compile or run it. To successfully build and execute a .cu file, you’ll need the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit installed on your system, which provides the necessary compilers, libraries, and tools for CUDA development. Remember to configure your environment correctly to point to the CUDA Toolkit installation path before attempting to compile and run your CUDA programs.