Hardware acceleration

Common card · No. 343305

Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware, known as a hardware accelerator, to perform specific functions faster than can be done by software running on a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU). Any transformation of data that can be calculated by software running on a CPU can also be calculated by an appropriate hardware accelerator, or by a combination of both. To perform computing tasks more efficiently, generally one can invest time and money in improving the software, improving the hardware, or both. There are various approaches with advantages and disadvantages in terms of decreased latency, increased throughput, and reduced energy consumption. Typical advantages of focusing on software may include greater versatility, more rapid development, lower non-recurring engineering costs, heightened portability, and ease of updating features or patching bugs, at the cost of overhead to compute general operations. Advantages of focusing on hardware may include speedup, reduced...

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