Functional safety software for industrial automation

25th November 2013

Renesas

Nat Bowers

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Renesas announce development of a new functional safety software package for its 32-bit RX631 and RX63N microcontrollers. The new solution provides diagnostic software for the industry-leading RX CPU core, and its internal memory. Significantly reducing development time, it also includes a detailed safety manual for designs that need to conform to stringent safety directives for industrial equipment, such as safety controllers, PLCs, industrial motor drives and safety sensors.

Demand for improved safety in the workplace and reduced operating costs is increasing. In order to design inherent safety for control systems and equipment, the industry is calling for the implementation of functional safety standards according to IEC61508.

System manufacturers need to perform safety analysis at the system level and at the device level in order to conform to functional safety. Safety analysis includes failure mode analysis, considering diagnostic methods, and assessment of its diagnostic coverage. Doing these tests and trying to get detailed test analysis from the device manufacturer is a significant burden. With Renesas’ safety solution for the RX631 and RX63N MCUs, this burden has been negated by the inclusion of a self-test diagnostic software library and a complete safety manual.

A comprehensive analysis targeting IEC61508 functional safety standard has been performed for the functional safety qualification, with the result published in the safety manual. The safety manual includes the RX MCU’s hardware safety mechanism, the diagnostic methods of software with its diagnostic coverage, and the safety parameter based on safety analysis for each function part of the MCU.

The new solution includes a self-test diagnostic software library for the CPU core, RAM and flash ROM. The diagnostic coverage of the CPU core has undergone comprehensive fault simulation tests. Therefore, the design solution makes it easy to show the basis of the coverage estimation and enables effective system integration.

High-performance, 32-bit MCUs operating at 1.65 DMIPS/MHz, the RX631 and RX63N MCUs include a floating point unit, hardware multipliers & MAC, flash operation without wait states, memory sizes up to 2MB of on-chip flash, and a rich set of peripherals such as multiple timers, high speed analog, Ethernet connectivity, and built-in safety-related functions. The new functional safety solution is compliant with Renesas’ RX631 and RX63N MCUs. Renesas is also planning to expand this safety solution to the company’s other RX family.

Available in February 2014, Renesas’ new Functional Safety Solution will be sold under a software license model.