Updated README.md

Author: stephen2ml

README.md

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 # GPU Programming 101 🚀
 
 [![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
-[![CUDA](https://img.shields.io/badge/CUDA-12.0%2B-76B900?logo=nvidia)](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit)
-[![ROCm](https://img.shields.io/badge/ROCm-5.0%2B-red?logo=amd)](https://rocmdocs.amd.com/)
+[![CUDA](https://img.shields.io/badge/CUDA-12.9.1-76B900?logo=nvidia)](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit)
+[![ROCm](https://img.shields.io/badge/ROCm-6.4.3-red?logo=amd)](https://rocmdocs.amd.com/)
 [![Docker](https://img.shields.io/badge/Docker-Ready-2496ED?logo=docker)](https://www.docker.com/)
+[![Examples](https://img.shields.io/badge/Examples-70%2B-green)](modules/)
 [![CI](https://img.shields.io/badge/CI-GitHub%20Actions-2088FF?logo=github-actions)](https://github.com/features/actions)
 
 **A comprehensive, hands-on educational project for mastering GPU programming with CUDA and HIP**
@@ -118,20 +119,79 @@ cd modules/module1/examples
 ## 🛠️ Prerequisites
 
 ### Hardware Requirements
-- **GPU**: NVIDIA GTX 1060+ or AMD RX 580+ (4GB+ VRAM recommended)
-- **System**: 8GB+ RAM (16GB+ recommended for advanced modules)
+
+#### NVIDIA GPU Systems
+- **Minimum GPU**: GTX 1060 6GB, GTX 1650, RTX 2060 or better
+- **Recommended GPU**: RTX 3070/4070 (12GB+), RTX 3080/4080 (16GB+) 
+- **Professional/Advanced**: RTX 4090 (24GB), RTX A6000 (48GB), Tesla/Quadro series
+- **Architecture Support**: Maxwell, Pascal, Volta, Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace, Hopper
+- **Compute Capability**: 5.0+ (Maxwell architecture or newer)
+
+#### AMD GPU Systems  
+- **Minimum GPU**: RX 580 8GB, RX 6600, RX 7600 or better
+- **Recommended GPU**: RX 6700 XT/7700 XT (12GB+), RX 6800 XT/7800 XT (16GB+)
+- **Professional/Advanced**: RX 7900 XTX (24GB), Radeon PRO W7800 (48GB), Instinct MI series
+- **Architecture Support**: RDNA2, RDNA3, RDNA4, GCN 5.0+, CDNA series
+- **ROCm Compatibility**: Officially supported AMD GPUs only
+
+#### System Memory & CPU
+- **Minimum RAM**: 16GB system RAM 
+- **Recommended RAM**: 32GB+ for advanced modules and multi-GPU setups
+- **Professional Setup**: 64GB+ for large-scale scientific computing
+- **CPU Requirements**: 
+  - **Intel**: Haswell (2013) or newer for PCIe atomics support
+  - **AMD**: Zen 1 (2017) or newer for PCIe atomics support
+- **Storage**: 20GB+ free space for Docker containers and examples
 
 ### Software Requirements
-- **OS**: Linux (recommended), Windows 10/11, or macOS
-- **CUDA**: 11.0+ for NVIDIA GPUs
-- **ROCm**: 5.0+ for AMD GPUs  
-- **Compiler**: GCC 7+, Clang 8+, or MSVC 2019+
-- **Docker**: For containerized development (recommended)
+
+#### Operating System Support
+- **Linux** (Recommended): Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, RHEL 8/9, SLES 15 SP5
+- **Windows**: Windows 10/11 with WSL2 recommended for optimal compatibility
+- **macOS**: macOS 12+ (Metal Performance Shaders for basic GPU compute)
+
+#### GPU Computing Platforms
+- **CUDA Toolkit**: 12.0+ (Docker uses CUDA 12.9.1)
+  - **Driver Requirements**: 
+    - Linux: 550.54.14+ for CUDA 12.4+
+    - Windows: 551.61+ for CUDA 12.4+
+- **ROCm Platform**: 6.0+ (Docker uses ROCm 6.4.3)
+  - **Driver Requirements**: Latest AMDGPU-PRO or open-source AMDGPU drivers
+  - **Kernel Support**: Linux kernel 5.4+ recommended
+
+#### Development Environment
+- **Compilers**:
+  - **GCC**: 9.0+ (GCC 11+ recommended for C++17 features)
+  - **Clang**: 10.0+ (Clang 14+ recommended)
+  - **MSVC**: 2019+ (2022 17.10+ for CUDA 12.4+ support)
+- **Build Tools**: Make 4.0+, CMake 3.18+ (optional)
+- **Docker**: 20.10+ with GPU runtime support (nvidia-container-toolkit or ROCm containers)
+
+#### Additional Tools (Included in Docker)
+- **Profiling**: Nsight Compute, Nsight Systems (NVIDIA), rocprof (AMD)
+- **Debugging**: cuda-gdb, rocgdb, compute-sanitizer
+- **Libraries**: cuBLAS, cuFFT, rocBLAS, rocFFT (for advanced modules)
+
+### Performance Expectations by Hardware Tier
+
+| Hardware Tier | Example GPUs | VRAM | Expected Performance | Suitable Modules |
+|---------------|--------------|------|---------------------|------------------|
+| **Entry Level** | GTX 1060 6GB, RX 580 8GB | 6-8GB | 10-50x CPU speedup | Modules 1-3 |
+| **Mid-Range** | RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT | 12GB | 50-200x CPU speedup | Modules 1-6 |
+| **High-End** | RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7800 XT | 16GB | 100-500x CPU speedup | All modules |
+| **Professional** | RTX 4090, RX 7900 XTX | 24GB | 200-1000x+ CPU speedup | All modules + research |
 
 ### Programming Knowledge
-- **C/C++**: Intermediate level (pointers, memory management)
-- **Command Line**: Basic terminal/shell usage
-- **Math**: Linear algebra basics helpful but not required
+- **C/C++**: Intermediate level (pointers, memory management, basic templates)
+- **Parallel Programming**: Basic understanding of threads and synchronization helpful
+- **Command Line**: Comfortable with terminal/shell operations
+- **Mathematics**: Linear algebra and calculus basics beneficial for advanced modules
+- **Version Control**: Basic Git knowledge for contributing
+
+### Network Requirements (Docker Setup)
+- **Internet Connection**: Required for initial Docker image downloads (~8GB total)
+- **Bandwidth**: 50+ Mbps recommended for efficient container downloads
+- **Storage**: Additional 20GB for Docker images and build cache
 
 ## 🐳 Docker Development