In the event of a system shutdown due to failure, the system log that captured the various environmental excursions becomes very important. This should be transmitted back to the system provider to expedite and guide system replacement and maintenance. It can also be used by the system provider and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to identify any design and/or environmental improvements. The data log is a great aid system repair as well as conducting a postmortem on a system. However when looking beyond diagnostics to prognostics, data logging can become more important by predicting failures before they happen. A power rail that is dropping down towards a threshold limit, but has not reached it yet, could be close to failure. A device that continually ‘runs hot’ could indicate a cooling system that is starting to loose effectiveness or subject to a foreign object obstructing air flow. It is better to know of an impending failure before it happens. That way preventive measure can be taken to maximize overall system up time. Either network traffic can be diverted around the hampered system or repairs can be made before the system goes off line. With large blocks of embedded flash for data logging and support for a Nios® II soft processor, the MAX® 10 FPGA is well suited to capture system fault conditions for diagnostics as well as analyze behavior for possible failures that have not yet occurred.