Smart storage platform leveraging Arm processor for enhanced safety

The platform includes standardised intellectual property (IP) that can be reconfigured quickly to address emerging applications. Cypress’ Semper NOR Flash family is based on the platform and is architected with an Arm Cortex-M0 processor to meet industry standards for building fail-safe embedded automotive systems and to provide reliable, high-endurance data retention at extreme operating temperatures common in automotive and industrial applications.

Failure is not an option for mission-critical applications such as self-driving cars and factory equipment handling costly materials. For these applications to work every time, they require smarter system memory that is long-lasting, dependable and designed for functional safety compliance. Cypress’ Semper devices were designed to achieve the ISO 26262 functional safety standard using the Cortex-M0 processor to enable safe boot, processing of complex embedded algorithms, and functional safety diagnostics.

The Semper family includes Cypress’ EnduraFlex architecture, which uses the Arm core to independently optimise the memory array for frequent data writing or for long data retention. The family also supports demanding instant-on applications with up to 400MBps of read bandwidth.

“Traditional methods of pure memory design do not address the market’s quickly evolving demands for trusted intelligence, which led us to adopt a completely new approach with standardised IP and embedded computing capabilities,” said Sam Geha, Executive Vice President of the Memory Products Division at Cypress. “Cypress’ unique portfolio of Arm-based microcontrollers and high-performance memories, along with our focus on quality for the automotive and industrial markets, gave us a distinct advantage over our competitors in developing our platform for fail-safe storage solutions such as our Semper NOR Flash family. The platform demonstrates Cypress’ strategy to focus on mission-critical applications with longer production cycles and to move away from commoditised markets.”

John Ronco, vice president and general manager, Embedded and Automotive Line of Business, Arm, added: “In an increasingly connected world, there is greater demand for safe, flexible, low power processing across a broad range of applications. When designing for automotive and industrial applications, robust quality is a necessity and safety cannot be an afterthought. Cypress’ memory platform and Semper NOR Flash architecture utilise the Arm Cortex-M0 to deliver the high levels of safety and reliability required by these markets.”

The Semper Flash family includes AEC-Q100 automotive-qualified devices with densities up to 4Gb and an extended temperature range of -40 to +125°C. The EnduraFlex architecture simplifies system design by enabling a Semper Flash device to be divided into multiple partitions. For frequent data writes, a partition can be configured to deliver up to 2.56 million cycles for 1Gb parts, while for code and configuration storage, a partition can be configured to retain data for 25 years.