Meta Platforms, Inc.
Apparatus, system, and method for performing hardware acceleration via expansion cards

Abstract:

An expansion card may include a printed circuit board and a hardware accelerator that is disposed on the printed circuit board. The hardware accelerator may include application-specific hardware circuitry designed to perform a computing task. The hardware accelerator may also offload a portion of the computing task from a central processing unit of a computing device by executing, via the application-specific hardware circuitry, the portion of the computing task. The expansion card may further include an edge connector, disposed on the printed circuit board, that is dimensioned to be inserted into an expansion socket of the computing device. The edge connector may couple the hardware accelerator to the central processing unit via a computing bus connected to the expansion socket. The edge socket may also include a pinout that is more compact than a pinout specification defined for the computing bus. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.