Dynamically configurable pipeline

A circuit, comprising:

• a plurality of processing engines, each of the processing engines including an input port and an output port;
• an order-keeping circuit, and
• a plurality of switches, each switch comprising two input ports and two output ports,
• wherein, for each of the processing engines,
• the input port of the processing engine is electrically connected to an output port of only one of the switches;
• the output port of the processing engine is electrically connected to an input port of only another one of the switches;
• the input port of the processing engine is electrically connected to the output port of each of the processing engines by the switches,
• wherein each processing engine of the plurality of processing engines has a single input port and a single output port in the circuit,
• wherein the order-keeping circuit is connected between an output port of one of the plurality of switches and an input port of one of the processing engines, and
• wherein the order-keeping circuit is configured to reorder processed data blocks based on identifications of the data blocks before the processed data blocks are sent to an output of the circuit.

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• receiving a data block to be processed by a processing circuit, wherein:
• the processing circuit comprises a plurality of processing engines connected together by a plurality of switches, each switch comprising two input ports and two output ports;
• and
• the data block comprises routing information;
• configuring the switches based on the routing information to connect the processing engines to form a multi-stage pipeline;
• and
• processing the data block using the multi-stage pipeline;
• wherein the configuring comprises, for each of the plurality of processing engines:
• electrically connecting an input port of the processing engine to an output of only one of the switches, and
• electrically connecting an output port of the processing engine to an input of only another one of the switches, wherein each processing engine of the plurality of processing engines has a single input port and a single output port in the multi-stage pipeline, and
• reordering, by an order-keeping circuit, processed data blocks based on identifications of the data blocks before the processed data blocks are sent to an output of the circuit, wherein the order-keeping circuit is connected between an output port of one of the plurality of switches and an input port of one of the processing engines.