GPU computing for 2-d spin systems: CUDA vs OpenGL

In recent years the more and more powerful GPU's available on the PC market have attracted attention as a cost effective solution for parallel (SIMD) computing. CUDA is a solid evidence of the attention that the major companies are devoting to the field. CUDA is a hardware and software architecture developed by Nvidia for computing on the GPU. It qualifies as a friendly alternative to the approach to GPU computing that has been pioneered in the OpenGL environment. We discuss the application of both the CUDA and the OpenGL approach to the simulation of 2-d spin systems (XY model).