Patent ID: 7426678

Claim:
A method for error checking configuration data written to configuration memory of a programmable logic device, the method comprising: reading a portion of the configuration data written to the configuration memory, the configuration data including error correction bits to provide encoded information; computing a partial syndrome value for the portion of the configuration data; identifying location of the portion of the configuration data relative to other portions of the configuration data; determining whether the partial syndrome value is an initial partial syndrome value responsive to the location; storing the partial syndrome value as a syndrome value responsive to the partial syndrome value being the initial partial syndrome value; respectively repeating the reading, the computing, the identifying, and the determining for each other portion of the configuration data written to the configuration memory; for each iteration of the repeating, combining the partial syndrome value then current with the syndrome value previously stored to provide an updated version of the syndrome value for storage; for each iteration of the repeating, storing the updated version of the syndrome value to obtain a syndrome from the configuration data written to the configuration memory; and using the syndrome for the error checking of the configuration data written to the configuration memory.