We will start this chapter by learning how to use Scikit-CUDA's cuBLAS wrappers. Let's spend a moment discussing BLAS. BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines) is a specification for a basic linear algebra library that was first standardized in the 1970s. BLAS functions are broken down into several categories, which are referred to as levels.
Level 1 BLAS functions consist of operations purely on vectors—vector-vector addition and scaling (also known as ax+y operations, or AXPY), dot products, and norms. Level 2 BLAS functions consist of general matrix-vector operations (GEMV), such as matrix multiplication of a vector, while level 3 BLAS functions consist of "general matrix-matrix" (GEMM) operations, such ...
