RM44L920: Consult security functions

Hi Rhea,

Hercules RM44L920 is certified by TÜV SÜD to be capable of achieving IEC 61508 SIL3. Functional safety is a system-level concept.

Our certification only provides certification at the component level and will only apply if you use it in accordance with the intended use/ provided guidelines to achieve the necessary SFF, PFH, and DC at the component level. However, if you are targeting safety for your application, it can only be achieved through system level compliance. The MCU is only one small part of this.

For a functional safety system, it is very important to have a solid foundation with adherence to industry functional safety standards. TI provides a strong foundation for the software stack through HALCoGen (Hardware Abstraction Layer Code Generator) and the SafeTI Diagnostic Library (SDL). These software components provide low-level peripheral drivers, device initialization and diagnostic functions for Hercules MCUs. Since they have been developed by following the ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 safety standards, they can be used by the customer assist in the development of their functional safety systems. The software development process for these software components has been certified by TÜV NORD to meet ASIL D and SIL 3 levels of safety integrity. TÜV NORD is an internationally recognized and independent assessor of compliance to quality and safety standards.

A functional safety system designer is responsible for creating systems (hardware or software components incorporated in these systems) that meet all applicable safety requirements. When the system is submitted for functional safety certification, all the software components are assessed to determine compliance to functional safety standards. This is a monumental task for the system developer if they are to provide all the artifacts for all the software components coming from different vendors. SafeTI compliance support packages (CSP) help make this task easier for the system developer. SafeTI Compliance Support Packages are developed according to TI’s certified software development process and are available for HALCoGen and the SafeTI Diagnostic library. These CSPs provide a helpful starting point for customers who need to provide similar evidence for their functional safety software.

The certification of safety end-products requires a compiler toolchain used in development to be qualified according to appropriate functional safety standards. The process of qualifying these tools known as ‘Tool Qualification’ can be time-consuming and expensive process. TI provides Safety Compiler Qualification Kit to assist customers in qualifying their use of the TI ARM compilers: TI ARMCL, and TI ARM Clang. I strongly recommend to use TI ARMCL compiler since the HALCOGen Generated code and SDL source code are not Clang compatible.

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Thanks & regards,
Jagadish.