In modern computing , hardware acceleration is used everywhere. It has become as familiar and natural as the expansion of processor instructions MMX. But this was not always so. The first timid steps of developers and programmers to promote new features, an ambiguous assessment of the computer community, and then - recognition ... all this was.
Now, hardware acceleration is present in almost every device and program. Sometimes, even where no one will look for him. Want a graphics card that supports hardware acceleration? You are welcome! And the sound adapter? Yes, any number! Well, what about the network card? And it has the ability to offload the central processor from the routine work with data packets!. . , ( ) .
What kind of acceleration is this? In fact, everything is simple. According to the general scheme of the computer device, all mathematical calculations are performed by the central processing unit (CPU). So, the command to calculate the amount of "2 + 2" program is converted into machine codes and transferred to him for processing. But since the processor performs a huge amount of calculations every second, with the addition of a new task, its performance is slightly reduced - the kernel is loading. Developers have long sought to increase the speed of calculations without increasing the power of the CPU, and the introduction of auxiliary hardware capabilities made this possible.
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You can disable or enable hardware acceleration in the application, but only if such a possibility is provided by the programmer. For example, you can control the graphics acceleration in Windows XP as follows: you need to call the properties of the desktop and follow the path "Options - Advanced - Diagnostics". The slider located in this window allows you to completely or partially disable hardware acceleration throughout the system. Sometimes this is necessary to solve compatibility issues.