hardwareassisted

Hardwareassisted, often written hardware-assisted, refers to the use of dedicated hardware components to augment or offload tasks from software running on general-purpose CPUs. It encompasses techniques where hardware features work in tandem with software to improve performance, security, or energy efficiency, without requiring entirely custom systems.

Common areas include virtualization, cryptography, graphics and media processing, and machine learning. In virtualization, hardware-assisted virtualization uses CPU features such as Intel VT-x or AMD-V to trap and manage guest operating systems with reduced software overhead and better isolation. In cryptography, hardware accelerators and instruction sets like AES-NI speed up encryption and decryption while maintaining security and offloading workload from the main cores. Graphics and media workloads leverage GPUs, VPUs, and specialized ASICs to accelerate rendering, video encoding, and decoding. In AI, hardware accelerators such as tensor cores or dedicated AI chips enable faster inference and training for certain models.

Benefits include higher throughput, lower latency, reduced power per operation, and improved security in some configurations through trusted hardware. Trade-offs involve hardware dependence, greater cost, potential vendor lock-in, and challenges in portability or software maintenance as hardware evolves. Security must be managed carefully, since hardware components can introduce new vulnerabilities or be subject to supply chain risks.

Related topics include hardware virtualization, cryptographic accelerators, neural accelerators, and hardware enclaves.