Data processing unit

A data processing unit (DPU) is a programmable electronic component that processes streams of data. The data is transmitted to and from the component as multiplexed packets of information. DPUs have the generality and the programmability of central processing units but are specialized to operate efficiently on networking packets, storage requests or analytics requests.
A DPU differentiates itself from a CPU by a larger degree of parallelism (required to process many requests) and from a GPU by a MIMD architecture rather an SIMD architecture (required as each request needs to make different decisions and follow a different path through the chip).