Patent ID: 7325179

Claim:
A storage system for transmitting data to and receiving data from other devices, said storage system comprising: a media drive that stores transmitted and received data; a PLD (Programmable Logic Device) for controlling data transfer between said other devices and said media drive; and a processor, wherein said PLD comprises: a memory for storing circuit configuration information indicating the configuration of a logical circuit, input from an information source located externally to said PLD, wherein if a soft error occurs in said memory, then said memory provides an interrupt signal to said processor; a circuit element group comprising a plurality of circuit elements; and a logical circuit for controlling said data transfer, configured on said circuit element group in accordance with the circuit configuration information in said memory, wherein said logical circuit comprises a plurality of subsidiary circuits and a plurality of error checking circuits, each of said plurality of subsidiary circuits including one of said plurality of error checking circuits, which check whether a hardware error has occurred in a corresponding subsidiary circuit, and wherein if at least one of said error checking circuits detects a hardware error, then an error report is stored, and wherein said processor: detects that said soft error has occurred in said memory if said interrupt signal is received by said processor from said memory; detects that said hardware error has occurred in said logical circuit if said error report is stored; and implements control based on which of said soft error and said hardware error the processor detects first.