Virtual Java/FPGA interface for networked reconfiguration

A virtual interface between Java and FPGA for networked reconfiguration is presented. Through the Java/FPGA interface, Java applications can exploit hardware accelerators with FPGAs for both functional flexibility and performance acceleration. At the same time, the interface is platform independent. It enables the networked application developers to design their applications with only one interface in mind when considering the interfacing issues. The virtual interface is part of our work to build a platform-independent deployment framework for the networked services. In the framework, both the software and hardware components of services can be platform independently described and deployed.