Soft error location and sensitivity detection for programmable devices

Abstract

Circuits, methods, and apparatus that detect whether a soft error that occurs in stored configuration data is a false positive that can be ignored such that reloading configuration data or other remedial measures are not unnecessarily performed. One example provides an integrated circuit including an error detection circuit and a sensitivity processor. The error detection circuit detects the presence of errors. The sensitivity processor determines whether a detected error can be ignored, or whether remedial action, such as providing an error flag, reconfiguring the device, or correcting the error, should be commenced. The sensitivity processor may make this determination based on whether the error occurred in a memory cell that configures unused circuitry. The sensitivity processor may make use of an error log to track known errors that may be ignored, so that this determination does not need to be done each time the configuration data is checked.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims priority to US Provisional Patent No. 60 / 793,946, filed April 21, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference. This application is related to US Patent Application Serial No. 11 / 407,519, filed April 19, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0003] The present invention relates generally to programmable devices, and more particularly to systems and methods for detecting configuration errors in programmable devices. Background technique [0004] Programmable devices typically include thousands of programmable logic elements consisting of logic gates or look-up tables that can be configured to perform user-defined logic functions. Programmable devices also typically include a number of dedicated circuits for specific functions, such as adders, multiply and accumulate circuits, phase-locked loops, and memory. These programmable logic elements and application specif...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, since most of the CRAM may not be used by the programmable device's application, many of these soft errors are "false positives" that have no effect on the programmable device's functionality

Thus, due to false positives, programmable devices typically reload configuration data unnecessarily, which reduces performance of the programmable device—due to downtime during loading of configuration data—and increases power consumption—due to unnecessary loading and storing

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