I've noticed that some CNC machine designs have the option of running the code from a PC through an onboard G code processor on the Stepper Driver board. I have a few questions about this. What is the advantage of having this on the hardware board as opposed to letting the PC hardware do the step/direction translation (aside, obviously, from putting the workload on the separate processor, and freeing up resources on the PC)? And, also, is this feature useable to a decent extent with current CAM software? Do I really need to look at this seriously as a possible feature?

The reason I am asking is, because I am building a home grown CNC machine, and am in the process of revising the board design. If this is a good idea, I may write a microprocessor for it.

Thanks ahead of time for your help.