| 摘要 |
A programmable circuit receives configuration data from an external source, stores the firmware in a memory, and then downloads the firmware from the memory. Such a programmable circuit allows a system, such as a computing machine, to modify the programmable circuit's configuration, thus eliminatin g the need for manually reprogramming the configuration memory. For example, i f the programmable circuit is an FPGA that is part of a pipeline accelerator, a processor coupled to the accelerator can modify the configuration of the FPG A. More specifically, the processor retrieves from a configuration registry firmware that represents the modified configuration, and sends the firmware to the FPGA, which then stores the firmware in a memory such as an electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Next, the FPGA download s the firmware from the memory into its configuration registers, and thus reconfigures itself to have the modified configuration.
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