A peer-vector machine includes a host processor and a hardwired pipeline
accelerator. The host processor executes a program, and, in response to
the program, generates host data, and the pipeline accelerator generates
pipeline data from the host data. Alternatively, the pipeline accelerator
generates the pipeline data, and the host processor generates the host
data from the pipeline data. Because the peer-vector machine includes
both a processor and a pipeline accelerator, it can often process data
more efficiently than a machine that includes only processors or only
accelerators. For example, one can design the peer-vector machine so that
the host processor performs decision-making and non-mathematically
intensive operations and the accelerator performs non-decision-making and
mathematically intensive operations. By shifting the mathematically
intensive operations to the accelerator, the peer-vector machine often
can, for a given clock frequency, process data at a speed that surpasses
the speed at which a processor-only machine can process the data.