Communication and control model for field programmable gate arrays and other programmable logic devices

摘要

A digital storage medium for use with a computer system for producing a Dynamic Object Model interposed between FPGA hardware (including hardware platforms and FPGAs) and software applications. Hardware functional units are represented by unique Dynamic Objects. Dynamic Objects allow functional units to abstractly advertise their functionality and attributes directly to software applications as objects. Software applications can utilize these abstract functions and set functional unit attributes without specific knowledge of the physical composition of FPGA hardware. A Dynamic Object Model includes a software environment front end program component and a hardware environment back end program component. Additionally, a Dynamic API allows the front end program component to effectively communicate with the back end program component.