Patent ID: 8078423

Claim:
A method of generating checking data to be written to programmable devices for checking a connection between terminals of the programmable devices, the method comprising: retrieving terminal data of the terminals of the programmable devices; determining whether each of the terminals is an output terminal or an input terminal based on the terminal data; determining whether each of the terminals is an external connection terminal to be coupled to an external device other than the programmable devices; setting up an assumed terminal in the external device every time a terminal is determined to be the external connection terminal; assigning unique data to the output terminal, and the assumed terminal coupled to the input terminal; recording comparison data in association with information about the input terminal and the assumed terminal coupled to the output terminal, the comparison data being same as the unique data of a corresponding output terminal or a corresponding assumed terminal; generating, for each of the programmable devices, a checking circuit that checks the connection between the terminals by comparing the unique data with the comparison data; and generating the checking data corresponding to the checking circuit, wherein the generating the checking circuit includes generating an output circuit that causes the unique data to be output from output terminals, generating a comparing circuit that compares data input from input terminals with the comparison data, and generating a timer circuit that switches, when a predetermined time elapses after the unique data is output from the output terminals, between the input direction and the output direction of the unique data of the bi-directional terminals.