Design of a flexible coprocessor unit

Todays FPGA technology allows reconfigurable hardware to be integrated into standard PC hardware. A hardware like this allows for on-the-fly reconfigurable hardware. It is possible to remove and insert complete subsystems just by reinitializing the configurable components. These systems make new demands on software that often can´t be fulfilled by the classical device driver concept used in todays operating systems. This paper presents a flexible and on-the-fly reconfigurable hardware subsystem for interworking systems. Furthermore, a software integration for fast and efficient reconfiguration of the hardware is introduced. It provides a flexible integration into a Unix environment