Hardware offloading on the EdgeRouter series (with the exception of the new ERX) enable the devices to pass data at higher rates then just software could do alone:

  set system offload ipsec enable
  set system offload ipv4 forwarding enable
  set system offload ipv4 pppoe enable
  set system offload ipv4 vlan enable
  set system offload ipv6 forwarding enable
  set system offload ipv6 pppoe disable
  set system offload ipv6 vlan enable

Take note that some features cause hardware offloading to be disabled.