| US 7,484,081 B1 | ||
| Method and apparatus for protecting designs in SRAM-based programmable logic devices | ||
| Martin Langhammer, Poole (United Kingdom); Gregory R. Steinke, San Jose, Calif. (US); Guy R. Schlacter, Buffalo Grove, Ill. (US); and Bernd Neidermeier, Munich (Germany) | ||
| Assigned to Altera Corporation, San Jose, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 10, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/975,094. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/239465, filed on Oct. 10, 2000. | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 9/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 713—1 [380/44; 326/8; 711/159; 711/164] | 31 Claims |
| 1. A method for controlling use of configuration data comprising:
programming a configurable device using the configuration data provided by a secure device, the configuration data associated
with an intellectual property block for implementing user logic on the configurable device, wherein the user logic includes
functions associated with a user design for implementation on the configurable device;
disabling user logic provided for implementation of the configuration data after it is loaded onto the configurable device,
wherein an error bit is set by a disabling signal generator to disable user logic;
generating a configurable device authorization code;
generating a secure device authorization code;
comparing the configurable device authorization code and the secure device authorization code; and
enabling the user logic if the configurable device authorization code corresponds to the secure device authorization code.
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