On-chip safety system for embedded control applications

Abstract

In this paper nl approach of an on-chip safety system architecture conforming to the second edition of the standard IEC 61508 is presented. The presented chip considers on-chip redundancy with the presence of diagnostic units and is designed to meet the highest possible safety integrity level for on-chip systems. The presented on-chip safety system consists of two redundant processor channels, each of which has a processor unit, data memory, program memory, communication interfaces, inputs and outputs. Furthermore, on-chip diagnosis- and monitoring units and a communication core are integrated. The safety-related implementation of the proposed architecture is introduced in this paper. This includes hardware and software implementation methodologies. Finally, a brief evaluation of the presented architecture is presented.