A dedicated Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) block within an Integrated circuit IC), for example, a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), allows direct access to the CRC block from within the programmable logic of the IC. Accessibility to the CRC block is achieved from any communication layer of the fabric due to the separation of the CRC block from the physical layer. All inputs and outputs of the CRC block are provided to the fabric to allow full controllability of CRC operation including data width, initial CRC value, and idle cycle introduction.