Functional Safety Technologies
Toshiba offers automotive microcontrollers that feature an optimized tightly coupled fault supervisor as a means of ensuring functional safety and have received Technical Report I for IEC61508 SIL3 from an authorized certification body. These microcontrollers deliver safer and more cost-effective solutions.
Presentation of Functional Safety Technologies
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Toshiba SIL3 Method
In a optimized tightly coupled fault supervisor configuration, execution core A is tightly coupled with a suite of hardware checkers, that reference internal signals. This way, comparison and self-diagnosis can be performed automatically. The new configuration offers hardware and software size reductions,compared to the traditional dual-core configuration.
Design Techniques for SIL3 Compliance
Toshiba's microcontroller platform specifically designed for SIL3 functional safety operation was highly appraised by an external certification body, TÜV -SÜD.
Proposals on Low-Cost Fail-Safe and Fail-Operational Systems
| Competitors' MCU | Toshiba's tightly coupled MCU | |
|---|---|---|
| 1-out-of-1 Single-Core |  Can not implement fail-safe functions. (Needs a secondary MCU.) |
 Stops the car safely in the event of an unstable cruising condition (Fail-safe) |
| 1-out-of-2 Dual-Core |  Stops the car safely in the event of an unstable cruising condition (Fail-safe) |
 Keeps the car in a stable cruising condition. (Fail-operational and fault-tolerant system) |
Toshiba's single-core MCU supports fail-safe function, which traditionally required a dual-core implementation. Additionally, Toshiba's dual-core MCU supports fail-operational and fault-tolerant systems.
What Is Functional Safety?
- Take, for example, an intersection of a railway and a road. How can you ensure safety there?
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- Overpass: Intrinsically prevents hazards (intrinsic safety)
- Railway crossing: Prevents hazards by using a safety system (functional safety)
- To achieve functional safety, a number of measures against failures must be implemented in a design.
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- Deterministic faults: Were functional bugs weeded out from hardware and software designs?
- Random hardware faults: Were wear-out and chance failures factored into hardware design?
- International standards of rules on electronic control systems
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- Basic functional safety standard applicable to all kinds of industry: IEC 61508 (Second edition released in April 2010)
Coverage: Atomic power facilities, railroads, processing facilities (plants), industrial machines, automobiles, etc. - Adaptation of IEC 61508 for automotive electric/electronic systems: ISO 26262 (published on November 15, 2011)
- Basic functional safety standard applicable to all kinds of industry: IEC 61508 (Second edition released in April 2010)
* System and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of respective companies or organizations.