Patent ID: 8903966

Claim:
A computer program product for re-programming programmable hardware devices, said computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: quiescing one or more entities internal to a programmable hardware device to be re-programmed, wherein the programmable hardware device is a router of a communications environment; storing state associated with the programmable hardware device in a resource internal to the programmable hardware device; reloading the programmable hardware device, the reloading including providing an update to the programmable hardware device; and restoring state associated with the programmable hardware device, wherein the programmable hardware device is re-programmed absent bringing down or restarting components external but coupled to the programmable hardware device, the restoring comprising: reloading stored state associated with the programmable hardware device from the resource internal to the programmable hardware device, except state that relates to one or more descriptor tables; and initializing and enabling at least one descriptor table manager of the router to restore state that relates to the one or more descriptor tables of the programmable hardware device.