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Difference between revisions of "hardware acceleration"

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{{title|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]]'''.
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'''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 optimized 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 ==
 
== Overview ==

Latest revision as of 20:29, 19 November 2017

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 optimized 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[edit]

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[edit]

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Compression
  • Cryptography
  • Graphics
  • Vector Manipulation