Xilinx, Inc.
NETWORK INTERFACE DEVICE

Abstract:

A network interface device having a hardware module comprising a plurality of processing units. Each of the plurality of processing units is associated with its own at least one predefined operation. At a compile time, the hardware module is configured by arranging at least some of the plurality of processing units to perform their respective at least one operation with respect to a data packet in a certain order so as to perform a function with respect to that data packet. A compiler is provide to assign different processing stages to each processing unit. A controller is provided to switch between different processing circuitry on the fly so that one processing circuitry may be used whilst another is being compiled.