Patent ID: 7111213

Claim:
A method for repairing failures on a programmable circuit, the method comprising: configuring the programmable circuit according to a user design; identifying an error in a first row of circuit elements on the programmable circuit; disabling the first row of circuit elements; replacing the first row of circuit elements with a first unused redundant row of circuit elements by configuring the first redundant row according to the user design; verifying the first redundant row is configured according to the user design, wherein if the first redundant row configuration does not match the user design, then disabling the first redundant row and replacing the first redundant row with at least one other redundant row and configuring the at least one other redundant row according to the user design; verifying the at least one other redundant row is configured according to the user design; and determining if a cause of the error is located in the first row of circuit elements or located in another row of circuit elements associated with the first row of circuit elements.