Patent ID: 8004855
Filing Date: 2011-08-23
Classification: G06F,H05K

Abstract:
1. A reconfigurable processing board, comprising: a circuit board; a plurality of programmable processing modules on the circuit board, each comprising a programmable integrated circuit chip at least one external interface circuit arranged on the circuit board to interface signals to and from the circuit board; a switch module mounted on said circuit board, wherein the switch module comprises a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a memory device, and at least one connector connected to the FPGA and configured to connect to a programming device to facilitate programming of the FPGA of the switch module and thereby configure the switch module for operations with respect to the plurality of programmable processing modules: conductive traces on the circuit board that connect to the programmable processing modules, wherein the conductive traces are arranged on the circuit board so as to accommodate use of the programmable integrated circuits of varying processing capacities in the programmable processing modules without the need to alter conductive trace footprints on the circuit board for the programmable processing modules and wherein the conductive traces on the circuit board connect said switch module to each of the programming processing modules and to the at least one external interface circuit, wherein each programmable processing module comprises at least one field programmable gate array (FPGA), at least two random access memory devices configured to directly connect to the FPGA, and at least two FLASH memory devices configured to directly connect to the FPGA, and wherein the FPGA, random access memory devices and FLASH memory devices are arranged symmetrically around a virtual line dividing the programmable processing module.