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by rcxdude 1996 days ago
No they're not. Claims 1, 8, and 15 are the only independent claims in the patent (if you're not infringing the independent claims you're not infringing any of the dependent claims: the tradeoff is the more general independent claims are generally easier to invalidate). All of them depend on having a dispatch unit which can be programmed to dispatch instructions into some logic which is configured by a bitfile (and also having the code and bitfile alongside each other and loaded by the same system). Most FPGA SoCs don't have a programmable instruction dispatch unit (which seems to me to be the core of the patent), and they generally do not have the software and bitfield side-by-side and loaded by the same loader, though that is probably an element which is quite vague and could be argued either way.

I don't like patents in general (and especially in software), but this patent is not as general as you claim.