Hardware communications infrastructure supporting location transparency and dynamic partial reconfiguration

Abstract

A communication system according to one aspect of the present invention, comprises one or more integrated circuits. The one or more integrated circuits comprise at least one of a local integrated circuit and a remote integrated circuit. At least one sending application hardware module located on the local integrated circuit has a sending logic that controls the sending of messages from the sending application hardware module. At least one receiving application hardware module is located on at least one of the local integrated circuit or remote integrated circuit. A sending application hardware module sends messages to a receiving application hardware module without its sending logic having been constructed with a priori knowledge of the address of or the path to said receiving application hardware module. A dispatch logic located on the local integrated circuit that routes at least one or more.

1 . A communication system, comprising:
 one or more integrated circuits comprising at least one of a local integrated circuit or a remote integrated circuit to the local integrated circuit;   at least one sending application hardware module located on the local integrated circuit, each sending application hardware module having a sending logic that controls the sending of messages from the sending application hardware module;   at least one receiving application hardware module located on at least one of the local integrated circuit or the remote integrated circuit; wherein a sending application hardware module sends messages to a receiving application hardware module without its sending logic having been constructed with a priori knowledge of the address of or the path to said receiving application hardware module, and   a dispatch logic located on the local integrated circuit that routes at least one or more of:
 A) messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module on to one or more receiving application hardware modules on the local integrated circuit, or 
 B) messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module for transport to one or more receiving application hardware modules located on a remote integrated circuit. 
   
     
     
         2 . The communication system of  claim 1 , further including one or more processors remote to the local integrated circuit running one or more receiving application software programs, wherein a sending application hardware module in the local integrated circuit sends messages to a receiving application software program executed on a remote processor without its sending logic having been constructed with a priori knowledge of the address of or the path to said receiving application software program, and wherein the dispatch logic routes at least one or more of the messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module for transport to the receiving application software program. 
     
     
         3 . A communication system, comprising:
 one or more integrated circuits;   one or more processors remote to the one or more integrated circuits running one or more application software programs;   at least one sending application hardware module in an integrated circuit having a sending logic that controls the sending of messages from the sending application hardware module, wherein the sending application hardware module sends messages to a receiving application software executed on a remote processor without its sending logic having been constructed with a priori knowledge of the address of or the path to said receiving application software program, and   a dispatch logic located on the integrated circuit that routes at least one or more of the messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module for transport to the receiving application software programs.   
     
     
         4 . The communication system of  claim 3 , wherein the dispatch logic routes at least one or more of:
 A) messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module on to one or more receiving application hardware modules on the same integrated circuit, or   B) messages transmitted from the sending application hardware module for transport to one or more receiving application hardware modules located on a remote integrated circuit.   
     
     
         5 . A reconfigurable filed programmable gate array (FPGA), comprising:
 a plurality of middleware-enabled application blocks; each middleware-enabled application block comprising one or more application objects that use one or more application-specific interface indicators, said one or more application-specific interface indicators being describe by a hardware defined language that implements each application block on the FPGA, wherein an application-specific indicator associated with one application block is modified dynamically without modifying any description of the hardware defined language that implements any other application block.