It's not a collection of x86_64 instructions, it's an separate specialized core on Intel CPUs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video#Hardware_dec

It's not a collection of x86_64 instructions, it's an separate specialized core on Intel CPUs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video#Hardware_decoding_and_encoding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video#Hardwar... and AMD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Coding_Engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Coding_Engine You need OS-dependent driver code to access it. Otherwise, if a decoder just uses x86_64 instructions, it's a software decoder.