| Reduce IEC 61508 development times with pre-qualified FPGAs, diagnostic intellectual property (IP), and development tool flow for functional safety systems. |
|
Industrial automation applications across all segments from factory, machine, and process automation to energy generation, distribution, and transportation require an increasing amount of safety-enabled equipment from automation component manufacturers and machine builders. This trend is fuelled by new safety standards and an increased focus on protecting workers from hazardous situations. The IEC 61508 specification was created and adopted as the standard for the development, deployment, and operation of safety-critical equipment.
The IEC 61508 specification for functionally safe electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic (E/E/PE) equipment introduces significant challenges. These challenges include increased time to market, specific considerations about safe device concepts, and the qualification of semiconductor devices, diagnostic IP, and development tools. Furthermore, the addition of self diagnosing functions that guarantee system consistency in the context of safe operation and failure handling are significantly increasing system complexity and development time.
TÜV-Qualified Safety Data Package
In cooperation with TÜV Rheinland, Altera developed a TÜV-qualified safety data package that contains safety manuals for Altera’s semiconductor devices, standard development tools (e.g., Quartus® II software), and diagnostic and standard IP like the Nios® II processor. This package was designed to allow you to use the FPGA data in the certification of your end products. Qualification data at the FPGA device level means that developers of E/E/PE safety-related equipment can benefit from the flexibility of FPGAs without having to worry about whether or not these FPGAs will meet TÜV requirements. Normally you have to collect and package device and tool data for submission to TÜV. With Altera’s safety data package, the device qualification has already been addressed in the data package. This process dramatically reduces the safety development time and enables design flexibility for fully customized safety controllers by integrating safe IP and other system logic in the same FPGA design.
To learn more about functional safety, please download the Developing Functional Safety Systems with TÜV-Qualified FPGAs white paper (PDF).
Related Links
- Altera Industrial Market
- Download Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership in Industrial Applications white paper (PDF)
- Download A Flexible Solution for Industrial Ethernet white paper (PDF)
- View Designing with Multiple Industrial Ethernet Standards on a Single Hardware Platform Webcast
- Watch Support Multiple Industrial Ethernet Protocols With a Single FPGA Video
- Altera Cyclone Series FPGAs
- Nios II Processor
- Design Software
