Date: 19/09/2011

Freescale launched new program for automotive domain to assure safety compliance

Freescale Semiconductor has introduced its SafeAssure program, designed to help system manufacturers easily achieve compliance with functional safety standards in the automotive and industrial markets, reduces the time required to develop safety systems that comply with the upcoming International Standards Organization (ISO) 26262 and existing International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508 standards.

"Freescale recognizes and appreciates the industry's increased diligence around safety applications, and we're bringing to bear our extensive expertise in automotive, industrial and networking applications utilizing both digital and analog semiconductor technologies as well as software to help address it," said Henri Richard, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for Freescale. "With the power of that experience behind them, Freescale's new SafeAssure program gives designers a head start as they work to achieve system compliance with functional safety standards and, at the end of the day, keep people safe."

Freescale's functional safety approach covers four key areas: safety process, safety hardware, safety software and safety support.

Freescale says to achieve compliance with functional safety standards, one of the first areas to address is the safety process - the way a company designs and produces a functional safety solution, an integral part of its product development process to align to the rigorous requirements of IEC 61508 and ISO 26262 and selects Freescale products are being defined and designed from the ground up to comply with the standards, with safety analysis done at each step of the development process and additional confirmation measures taken to help ensure safety requirements are fully met.

Freescale safety hardware concept focuses on detecting and mitigating random hardware failures. Failure control is achieved through built-in safety functions, such as self-testing, monitoring and hardware-based redundancy, in Freescale microcontrollers, power management ICs and sensors. Freescale says analog automotive solutions provide additional functionality (checking microcontroller (MCU) timing, voltages and error management) that helps improve system robustness and simplify electronic control unit designs.

To achieve system-level functional safety goals, hardware and software must seamlessly integrate to provide comprehensive coverage of the safety requirements. To that end, the third key area of Freescale's functional safety approach is safety software. Freescale is developing a comprehensive set of automotive functional safety software deliverables, including AUTOSAR OS and associated microcontroller abstraction layer (MCAL) drivers, as well as core self-test capabilities. To enhance its safety software portfolio for the automotive and industrial markets, Freescale is partnering with leading third-party software providers to offer additional safety software solutions.

The fourth area of Freescale's functional safety approach is robust safety support, with the goal of easing system-level integration and functional safety standard compliance. Freescale's capabilities extend from customer-specific training and system design reviews regarding functional safety architecture to extensive safety documentation and technical support.

"Our strategy is to provide targeted automotive and industrial solutions that reduce complexity and development time for building 'functionally safe' systems," said Reza Kazerounian, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's Microcontroller Solutions Group. "Our customers can expect to see even more from us in the coming months, as we introduce additional SafeAssure solutions, including some built on our Power Architecture multicore platforms that will be critical for systems requiring new levels of functional safety."

"Freescale approaches safety applications with a system-level perspective, which includes our market-leading sensing and analog solutions that have been operating in safety applications for more than a decade," said Tom Deitrich, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's RF, Analog and Sensor Group. "Freescale led the way with the first MEMS inertial sensors for automotive airbags in 1996, and our SafeAssure program takes our long-term focus on safety to the next level."

For more information and a list of products currently included in the Freescale SafeAssure program, visit www.freescale.com/safeassure.