As the complexity of networking and security applications continues to grow, more and more of the computational resources are needed for workloads such as cryptography, data compression and pattern matching. Intel® QuickAssist Technology is designed to optimize the use and deployment of algorithm accelerators in these kinds of applications.

How it Works

Intel QuickAssist Technology comprises hardware and software capabilities aimed at simplifying accelerator use on Intel® architecture. Developers of accelerator hardware modules can program their field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to attach directly to the front side bus of an Intel® processor, significantly increasing data throughput. Intel is also integrating accelerators on processors, such as the Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor, a system-on-a-chip (SoC), for applications with specialized workloads.

Intel processor-based platforms will incorporate PCI Express* 3.0, which is expected to improve accelerator efficiency and double the delivered bandwidth to 8GT/s. Software-wise, the Intel® QuickAssist Technology Accelerator Abstraction Layer (AAL) makes it easier to migrate from one technology to another with minimum impact to applications.

Key Benefits

By leveraging Intel QuickAssist Technology, developers can attain higher accelerator performance and flexibility with much less effort. Specialized data manipulation algorithms are more easily offloaded onto dedicated hardware accelerators that are highly optimized in terms of power, performance, footprint and cost, thereby freeing up valuable cycles on Intel® architecture processors to perform value-added, differentiating functionality. Moreover, end-users can choose devices and solutions that fit their changing business requirements without being tied to a particular accelerator.

Energy Equipment Scenario

Industries, such as energy, manufacturing and chemical production, are exploring the use of field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based accelerators for computation-intensive algorithms. FPGA accelerators can speed up domain specific algorithms by implementing these algorithms directly in hardware. Easing accelerator system integration, AAL provides a uniform way for applications to communicate with accelerators and manage them as resources.

Communications Scenario

IP telephony applications perform a wide range of security, time-division multiplexing and IP workloads. The Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor with Intel QuickAssist Technology has on-chip accelerators that increase the performance of cryptography and TDM processing, while delivering excellent performance-per-watt for small form factor designs.