1. A method of updating programmable logic devices (‘PLDs’) in a symmetric multiprocessing (‘SMP’) computer, each PLD configured according to configuration instructions installed within each PLD, the SMP computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes including a primary compute node and one or more secondary compute notes, the compute nodes sharing a same memory address space, each compute node further comprising a PLD coupled for data communications to at least one computer processor through a bus adapter, the bus adapter adapted for data communications through a set of one or more input/output (‘I/O’) memory addresses, each bus adapter defaulting, upon a stand-alone boot, to a same set of one or more I/O memory addresses, the method comprising: configuring the primary compute node with an update of the configuration instructions for the PLDs; and for each PLD of each secondary compute node, transmitting, by the primary compute node, the update to the PLD using a set of one or more I/O addresses corresponding to a particular bus adapter associated with a particular PLD.