Configuration of programmable device using a DMA controller

1. A method of configuring a programmable device, the method comprising:

in response to a reset of the programmable device, issuing a default transaction descriptor to a direct memory access (DMA) controller, the default transaction descriptor identifying a plurality of transaction descriptors;

verifying at least one of the plurality of transaction descriptors;

when verified and while the programmable device is in a non-executing state, copying a set of configuration data from a first memory to configuration registers in response to the plurality of transaction descriptors being processed by the DMA controller; and

if the verifying fails, bypassing copying the set of configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first memory is a non-volatile memory.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the issuing the default transaction descriptor comprises placing a processor of the programmable device into the non-executing state.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising releasing the processor from the non-executing state in response to a last of the plurality of transaction descriptors being processed by the DMA controller.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the issuing the default transaction descriptor comprises copying the plurality of transaction descriptors from a non-volatile memory to a volatile memory using the DMA controller.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the copying the set of configuration data comprises executing the plurality of transaction descriptors of the volatile memory using the DMA controller.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying of the at least one of the plurality of transaction descriptors comprises comparing field types of the at least one of the plurality of transaction descriptors with expected field types.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of transaction descriptors comprises at least one of a source address, a destination address, a priority, and a size of the configuration data.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying of the at least one of the plurality of transaction descriptors comprises performing at least one of a checksum and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the at least one of the plurality of transaction descriptors.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the default transaction descriptor is stored in a nonvolatile memory.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of transaction descriptors are chained together.

12. A method of configuring a programmable device, the method comprising:

generating a direct memory access (DMA) request to a DMA controller in response to a reset of the programmable device, the generating of the DMA request comprising issuing a default transaction descriptor to the DMA controller in response to a reset of the programmable device, the default transaction descriptor identifying at least one transaction descriptor;

verifying the at least one transaction descriptor prior to automatically loading configuration data of the programmable device to configuration registers of the programmable device; and

while a processor of the programmable device is in a non-executing state, automatically loading the configuration data to the configuration registers of based on using the DMA controller to process the at least one verified transaction descriptor.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising maintaining the processor of the programmable device in the non-executing state while the configuration registers are being loaded during the automatically loading configuration data.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising releasing the processor from the non-executing state when the automatically loading configuration data of the programmable device is completed.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising verifying the configuration data prior to the automatically loading configuration data to the configuration registers.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the reset of the programmable device comprises at least one of:

a reset during a runtime operation of the programmable device; and

a master reset during an initialization of the programmable device; a power-on reset; a watchdog reset; an external reset.

17. A system for configuring a programmable device, the system comprising:

a non-volatile memory configured to store transaction descriptors and configuration data;

a comparator configured to verify the transaction descriptors;

a plurality of configuration registers configured to use the verified transaction descriptors to configure the programmable device based on the configuration data; and

a direct memory access (DMA) controller configured to use the verified transaction descriptors to transfer the configuration data from the non-volatile memory to the configuration registers while a processor of the programmable device is in a non-executing state, the DMA controller being configured to transfer the configuration data in response to a reset of the programmable device.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the programmable device comprises a programmable system on chip.

19. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a processor and a local memory coupled to the DMA controller to store transaction descriptors used by the DMA controller in transferring the configuration data.

20. The system of claim 19 , further comprising a second memory storing a default transaction descriptor used by the DMA controller in loading the transaction descriptors of the non-volatile memory to the local memory.