Coprocessor refers to a device which is designed to assist the main CPU of a computer system with certain calculations.

Early devices were used to calculate floating point mathematical equations, and were commmonly referred to as maths coprocessors.

An example of a modern day coprocessor, could be a dedicated processor found on some video cards, which handle the complex mathematics involved in processing high resolution graphics.

Another example would be a dedicated audio coprocessor, found on soundcards which have special audio processing capabilities.

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