Patent ID: 8095927

Claim:
A local distributed processor device reconfigurable for performing a plurality of functions, the local distributed processor device comprising: a local data communication fabric; a plurality of processor devices interconnected for communication through the local data communication fabric, each of the plurality of processor devices having an associated processor manager configured to control software components associated with an individual processor device of the plurality of processor devices; a port configured to receive data from one or more outside application programs; and a framework manager connected to the local data communication fabric and to the port, the framework manager being configured to: interact with the associated processor managers to control the plurality of processor devices via the local data communication fabric, monitor the port for requests from one of the one or more outside application programs, receive requests from the one of the one or more outside application programs for the local distributed processor device to perform one or more of the plurality of functions including a request to load a plan, the plan including a predefined configuration of a plurality of software components used to provide the one or more of the plurality of functions using the local distributed processor device with which individual software components are associated, and how the individual software components and the plurality of processor devices are interconnected, load the plan from a library, assign one or more of the plurality of software components to particular ones of the plurality of processor devices according to the plan, wherein assigning one or more of the plurality of software components includes passing information identifying at least one software component to the associated processor managers for the plurality of processor devices such that the associated processor managers can download the at least one software components to the individual processor devices, and initialize the local distributed processor device based on the plan and properties of the plurality of software components to carry out the one or more of the plurality of functions requested by the one outside application program.