1. A data processing system comprising: a processing device; and a computer system having a system bus, wherein the computer system is configured to communicate with the processing device over the system bus to control an operation of the processing device; wherein the processing device comprises a re-configurable logic device configured to receive and process streaming data through a pipeline deployed on the re-configurable logic device, the pipeline comprising a plurality of pipelined data processing engines, the plurality of pipelined data processing engines being configured to perform different processing operations, wherein the pipeline comprises a multi-functional pipeline, and wherein the re-configurable logic device further comprises a control processor, wherein the control processor is configured to controllably activate or deactivate each of the pipelined data processing engines in the pipeline and thereby define a function for the pipeline, the pipeline function being the combined functionality of each activated pipelined data processing engine in the pipeline.