Businesses need computers, and some need very fast computers. A new idea, backed by Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), is to use chips designed to manage graphics and video on computer screens for more generalized 'number crunching.' The graphics processing units (GPUs) have received excellent reviews in performing such tasks, and they threaten to take specialized jobs away from the microprocessors used in personal computers and server systems. For example, energy exploration firms typically have rooms full of servers that use conventional microprocessors from Intel Inc. and AMD to sort seismic information and analyze potential petroleum deposits. Some of these simulations can take weeks or even months on traditional machines. With machines using Nvidia GPUs, however, the same types of tasks can be finished in 10 percent of the time, says Diderick Buch, chief executive officer of Headwave Inc., a software specialist in the field. While GPUs are not appropriate for every task, they excel when calculations must be performed repeatedly on massive data sets. Quantum3D Inc. has used AMD's ATI GPUs and PeakStream Inc. software to aid U.S. government customers put together images from multiple security cameras and from radar and laser detectors in planes. There have been speedups in processing of 100 to 1 in some cases, says Ross Smith, president of Quantum3D.