Adding an FPGA onto a desktop CPU probably doesn't speed up any existing benchmark tests, but it does have a lot of potential. At an ELI5 level, FPGAs are reco

Adding an FPGA onto a desktop CPU probably doesn't speed up any existing benchmark tests, but it does have a lot of potential. At an ELI5 level, FPGAs are reconfigurable blocks of digital logic gates. So a CPU-connected chunk of FPGA fabric could be reconfigured on-the-fly to create task-specific CPU instructions. A smart C compiler might be able to detect an ultra-common 16-instruction block of code and synthesize it into FPGA logic (effectively collapsing it down to a single instruction as far as the CPU is concerned). edit: as pjc50 points out, Intel isn't making any FPGA/x86-64 hybrids just yet. But I'd bet good money that they're on Intel's roadmap after the Altera aquisition.