Editing hardware acceleration

{{title|Hardware Acceleration}}
'''Hardware acceleration''' refers to the use of specialized hardware circuitry in order to speed up certain computational tasks. Hardware acceleration is designed to speed-up certain functions more than would otherwise be possible using generic software on a [[general-purpose microprocessor]]. The hardware circuitry that performs the acceleration is called an '''[[accelerator]]''' and the software utilizing those accelerators are called '''[[hardware-accelerated software]]'''.

== Overview ==
As traditional [[single-core performance]] improvements slows down, a need to improve the performance of certain algorithms continues. Additionally, repetitive algorithms can consume a large amount of the processor's resources. Hardware acceleration is any use of specialized hardware circuitry used to speed up computational tasks. Typically, the speed-up is by as much as an order of magnitude vs. what's possible using ordinary software on a [[general-purpose microprocessor]]. Additionally, by off-loading those intense computations to be done by specialized hardware, the main processor's utilization goes down, freeing up resources for other workloads.

=== Typical accelerated workloads ===
* Artificial Intelligence
* Compression
* Cryptography
* Graphics
* Vector Manipulation

[[category:hardware acceleration]]