Patent ID: 7509450

Claim:
A method, comprising: running an operating system on a main processor integrated in a system on a chip; enabling hardware processes comprising at least data sources, data sinks, and data processing nodes that comprise elements of the system on a chip to directly communicate with one another using connections made via switching nodes controlled by at least one microcontrol processor; and directing the operations of said at least one microcontrol processor to implement setup and control of at least one of off-chip hardware processes or on-chip hardware processes in accordance with higher level commands of said main processor, where the higher level commands comprise prompting said at least one microcontrol processor to perform at least one of implementing the higher level commands via the switching nodes or relaying the higher level commands for implementation off-chip or on-chip, and where said at least one microcontrol processor functions so as to isolate said main processor from details of functioning of communications and hardware processes.