Hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware made to perform some functions more efficiently than in software running on a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU). Any transformation of data or routine that can be computed can be calculated purely in software running on a generic CPU, purely in custom-made hardware, or in some mix of both. An operation can be computed faster in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed or programmed to compute the operation than specified in software and performed on a general-purpose computer processor. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages. The implementation of computing tasks in hardware to decrease latency and increase throughput is known as hardware acceleration.
Typical advantages of software include 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 hardware include speedup, reduced power consumption, lower latency, increased parallelism and bandwidth, and better utilization of area and functional components available on an integrated circuit; at the cost of lower ability to update designs once etched onto silicon and higher costs of functional verification, and times to market. In the hierarchy of digital computing systems ranging from general-purpose processors to fully customized hardware, there is a tradeoff between flexibility and efficiency, with efficiency increasing by orders of magnitude when any given application is implemented higher up that hierarchy. This hierarchy includes general-purpose processors such as CPUs, more specialized processors such as GPUs, fixed-function implemented on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and fixed-function implemented on ASICs.Hardware acceleration is advantageous for performance, and practical when the functions are fixed so updates are not as needed as in software solutions. With the advent of reprogrammable logic devices such as FPGAs, the restriction of hardware acceleration to fully fixed algorithms has eased since 2010, allowing hardware acceleration to be applied to problem domains requiring modification to algorithms and processing control flow.
Everytime I plug something into my laptop USB port it tells me "This device can perform faster". Is that something I can do without replacing any hardware?
I am looking for information related to computer hardware trade...
which covers from prespective of international business..like major key players,,import,,export...restrictions that sort of things...
but till now all my efforts have been unsuccessful to find such infn.
I will be really...
I was looking at some of those battery operated candles that flicker like real candles, and asked myself, "how hard would that be to make?" The main problem being, I have very little knowledge of electrical engineering. Even if I had an algorithm, I wouldn't know how to implement it into...
Is designing the hardware circuits more difficult than designing software? Can a hardware circuit designer earn more money than a software designer? What subjects do I need to study if I want to make a career as a hardware circuit designer?
Lifetimes of Aerospace Hardware
Preserving the viability of complex machines and electronics for extended periods: Is it feasible with today’s technology to design equipment that will be capable of withstanding interstellar space for a period up to 150 years? One example that illustrates some...
I had a similar question earlier but I think this is different. Is there a difference between routers, hubs and switches sold in the USA and those sold in europe?
Finally, this will be the first hardware RAID controller that I will own and will use in my own workstation. Software RAID does get tiring after awhile, especially if you have an ungodly amount of small drives in a system (6 * 9gb U160 SCSI drives - reliable, fast, however, small).
With...
I just purchased some new pieces of hardware for my computer from TigerDirect.com. I bought this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=171736&Sku=P67-1086
, a dvd burner, a 160 gig hard drive, and windows xp (I currently have ME).
My computer only has...
So, I've heard that recently, the occupation of Electrical Engineers and Computer Hardware Engineers have been separated. Electrical Engineers that specialize in making computer hardware are called the latter.
I was just wondering if "Computer Hardware Engineers" still hold Electrical...
When will computer hardware match the human brain?
(Received Dec. 1997)
Hans Moravec
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA
net: hpm@cmu.edu
web: http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/
ABSTRACT
This paper describes how the performance of...
I recently installed XP Pro onto my comp, and added a 2nd hard drive, and upgraded my RAM. The computer started crashing everytime I'd run virus scan, and on and off when I do other operations, usually when trying to access my 2nd hard drive. The event viewer says that ACPI BIOS is attempting...