Hardware acceleration can slow down your computer if it is switched off. This is because the CPU needs to process all data. By turning it on, you’ll be able to offload some of the processing power to equipment that is specifically designed for it, such as audio and graphics cards. This allows your processor to be used for other tasks.

This is because these devices are designed to perform a specific task and are superior at it than your computer’s general-purpose processor. Hardware accelerators are used to accomplish many tasks, including 3D rendering, decoding video, and even regular expression hardware acceleration to stop spam attacks that employ patterns like ‘ r n’.

As a design tool, hardware acceleration is used to speed up the execution of algorithm-intensive algorithms that would otherwise take too long for a general-purpose processor accomplish. They can be built into a chip, or be external components that communicate with processors by mapping instructions from the processor to hardware-accelerated functions. They can range in granularity from a single component such as a memory block that handles bit blits up to a complete accelerator that runs fixed algorithm, such a motion estimation.

Cadence provides a full suite of tools that can be used to support each step of the hardware acceleration design process from Stratus high-level Synthesis and Genus logic synthesis https://silminds.com/news to Innovus implementation system as well as Conformal low-power analysis. Joules RTL power analysis. These tools enable designers to create highly efficient, cost-effective hardware accelerators that are optimized for their intended applications and market.