DynaCORE — A Dynamically Reconfigurable Coprocessor Architecture for Network Processors

Abstract

Network processors are special purpose processors, tailored to the needs of packet processing in internet routers. Network processors are, in general, freely programmable devices. However, their performance in payload processing relies on specific tasks to be accelerated by fixed purpose coprocessors which are integrated into the device. As a solution to overcome the restrictions of flexibility, a dynamically adaptable coprocessor based on dynamically and partially reconfigurable logic (DynaCORE) is proposed.