A coprocessor is an auxiliary microprocessor designed to supplement the functionality of its host processor typically with a more specialized set of operations such as floating point arithmetic, string processing, and encryption. Generally, a distinction is made between a coprocessor and a generic accelerator in how the interaction between the host processor and the coprocessor is done. That is, coprocessors are a subset of accelerators that are architectural and are typically connected to the internals of the host processor which then passes it instructions to execute. This is in contrast to generic accelerators which are typically viewed as an independent I/O device which is programmed though an interface.