Integrated circuit with supervisory control circuit

A method for providing access to device management resources of a programmable logic device (PLD) by application logic implemented on configurable logic resources and configurable interconnect circuitry of the PLD, comprising:

• configuring a control store in the PLD with control codes;
• receiving from the application logic at a processor implemented on the PLD, a command calling for access to a selected one of the device management resources;
• checking whether the application logic has permission to access the selected one of the device management resources;
• denying access to selected control codes for accessing the selected one of the device management resources in response to the application logic not having permission to access the selected one of the device management resources;
• fetching from the control store by the processor the selected control codes in response to the command;
• executing the selected control codes by the processor;
• and
• accessing the selected one of the device management resources in response to executing the control codes.

A circuit arrangement for providing access to device management resources of an integrated circuit (IC) by application logic implemented on configurable logic resources and configurable interconnect circuitry, comprising:

• means for configuring a control store in the IC with control codes;
• means for receiving from the application logic at a processor implemented on the IC, a command calling for access to a selected one of the device management resources;
• means for checking whether the application logic has permission to access the selected one of the device management resources;
• means for denying access to selected control codes for accessing the selected one of the device management resources in response to the application logic not having permission to access the selected one of the device management resources;
• means, responsive to the command, for fetching from the control store by the processor the selected control codes;
• means for executing the selected control codes by the processor;
• and
• means, responsive to execution of the control codes, for accessing the selected one of the device management resources.

A programmable logic device, comprising:

• a plurality of configurable logic resources;
• an interconnect circuit configurable to selectively couple the configurable logic resources;
• a plurality of device management resources, including a temperature sensor, a power controller, a configuration controller, a digital clock manager, and a multi-gigabit per second serial transceiver;
• a first interface circuit coupled to a plurality of sets of interface ports that are coupled to the interconnect circuit;
• a second interface circuit coupled to the device management resources;
• a control store configured with control codes for accessing the device management resources;
• and
• a processor coupled to the first interface circuit, the second interface circuit, and the control store, wherein the processor, responsive to a command received via the first interface circuit, is configured to fetch selected control codes from the control store, execute the control codes, and access a selected device management resource via the second interface circuit in response to executing the control codes,
• wherein the command calls for access to a selected one of the device management resources,
• wherein the control circuit checks whether the application logic has permission to access the selected one of the device management resources and denies access to read the control codes in response to the application logic not having permission to access the selected one of the device management resources, and
• wherein the command is received from logic implemented on the configurable logic resources.