Patent ID: 7660939
Filing Date: 2010-02-09
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A programmable logic device for use within an electronic system having a host central processing unit, the programmable logic device comprising: a bus; a memory coupled to said bus; a plurality of bidirectional communication ports coupled to said bus; a switching mechanism coupled to said plurality of communication ports; a process control block resident in said memory, corresponding to a computing entity coupled to one of said plurality of communication ports; and software instructions resident in said memory to respond to input received from said computing entity by selecting between sending data to a device connected to one of said plurality of communication ports, and instructing said switching mechanism to establish a direct connection between two of said plurality of communication ports, wherein said software instructions are operable to allocate resources of said computing entity for use by another computing entity independent of said host central processing unit (CPU), and wherein said software instructions comprise a computing operating system.