Abstract: Methods and systems for deploying a processing resource in a configurable platform are described. A methods includes providing a specification that describes a configuration of a processing area network, the specification including (i) a number of processors for the processing area network (ii) a local area network topology defining interconnectivity and switching functionality among the specified processors of the processing area network, and (iii) a storage space for the processing area network. The specification further includes processing resource specific persistent settings. The method further includes allocating resources from the configurable platform to satisfy deployment of the specification, programming interconnectivity between the allocated resources and processing resources to satisfy the specification, and deploying the specification to a processing resource within the configurable deployment platform in response to software commands.