The last CPU
Joel Nider, Alexandra Fedorova · 2021
Since the end of Dennard scaling and Moore's Law have been foreseen, specialized hardware has become the focus for continued scaling of application performance. Programmable accelerators such as smart memory, smart disks, and smart NICs are now being integrated into our systems. Many accelerators can be programmed to process their data autonomously and require little or no intervention during normal operation. In this way, entire applications are offloaded, leaving the CPU with the minimal responsibilities of initialization, coordination and error handling.