In this paper we present the manner the POEtic chip can be used to rapidly prototype systems. This chip, currently in test phase, is a system-on-chip containing a microprocessor and a reconfigurable array. Spe- cial features allow to dynamically create data paths at runtime in the reconfigurable array. It has been specially designed to ease the development of bio- inspired systems such as neural networks, but can serve as a general purpose platform, or as a prototype for hardware/software codesign. An AMBA bus permits to connect POEtic chips together, as well as any other external devices. After having described the hardware SOC, we show the current software tools that have been created to design and test different applications. Three of these applications are briefly explained to show the usefulness of its special features.