A system and method for enabling rapid partial configuration of reconfigurable devices includes a configuration definition unit and a configuration loading unit. The configuration definition unit defines partial configuration requirements, and contains at least a starting address of configuration data for the partial reconfiguration, data size specifying the number of contiguous locations to be reconfigured, and desired configuration data corresponding to the contiguous locations. The configuration loading unit provides for loading the configuration data into the reconfigurable device according to the partial configuration requirements without providing commands corresponding to any addresses outside of said configuration requirements.