Hello,
I need to know that if e.g i made a system with TI safe MCU. what need to be done to make it Certified? For example if i developed a Positioning System with TI RM46x mcu. which certification do i need and what else i have to do to make it certified? thanks
Hassan,
First, the simple use of the Hercules certified device doesn't get you to a certified system. What the device level certification means is you can use the device and it's identified safety mechanisms to protect from the Random faults that are covered by the safety standards as well as potential systematic faults that could be generated by the software you develop for the MCU/system. Each of the safety standards would need to be applied at a system level which means that you would need to first develop your system safety requirements, complete your qualitative and quantitative analysis, enter the design phase, then validation etc. There is a model that is recognized as the required model for functional safety development that goes from the development side to life cycle management to end of life. It is a holistic approach with very intentional and planned activities from start to finish. In a since the physical product is simply a by product of the process and the process is the core of the functional safety development. Documentation and adherence to the process is of the upmost importance. Here is a depiction of the V-Model Safety Lifecycle provided in a diagram based on one received from our assessor, TUEV SUED.
As you can see by the responses, your question is a very high level question. In general, it sounds like the primary application for your design would be industrial automation. For any industrial automation project that is to be sold on the global market (especially in Europe), EN/ISO13849 is a required standard to be incompliance with. The details of what need to be done from a safety point of view are dependent on what level of safety is needed. (EN/ISO13849 uses a Category number and performance level to define safety levels). This standard also imposes some HW architecture requirements dependent on the safety levels targeted but, with Hercules, there are some exceptions that we have successfully argued. In most cases, the developers also target a SIL level according to IEC61508 in parallel with the EN/ISO13849 safety targets because the IEC61508 standard has a lot in common and is referred from the EN/ISO13849.
As this is a very broad topic, I would recommend you first have a look at some of the training materials that TI has for our customer. For certain, these are not comprehensive and may have some gaps still, they are a good start to beginning your learning curve. In the end it is best to read and understand the standards and perhaps even evaluate taking formal Functional Safety Training from an accredited assessment house.
Some links to helpful content:
"A Brief Introduction to Functional Safety"
"Hercules Platform & Safety Feature Overview"
Defining the impact of functional safety e-book
Link to SafeTI Video resources for Safety Training and General Information
Hopefully this material is helpful. You can also find a fairly long list of application notes on the Hercules product pages. Start looking here: ti.com/hercules
