Those common computationally complex functions generally get abstracted away via CMSIS or the like, I've yet to beat the hardware implementations of common sign

Those common computationally complex functions generally get abstracted away via CMSIS or the like, I've yet to beat the hardware implementations of common signal processing algorithms in software despite actively trying. Anyone trying to fill in for missing DSP hardware is going to have a very bad time. I can't imagine it's much better for other hardware-->software transitions, given the cost of specific hardware implementations they're generally only used when actually necessary.