Altera updates functional safety data package

HONG KONG: Altera Corp. has announced the availability of an updated version of its functional safety data package for automotive, industrial, medical and defense applications.

Altera’s 2012 functional safety data package includes additional device support and enhanced software support, allowing customers using Cyclone IV FPGAs to reduce risks and adhere to the latest safety regulations when developing safety-critical designs. The updated functional safety data package accelerates customer’s certification process, enabling developers to dramatically decrease their development time.

Working with the TÜV Rheinland Group, an independent organization globally recognized for safety and quality testing, Altera ensures the package includes certification for its Cyclone IV FPGAs and provides a safety design flow, the intellectual property (IP), and development tools necessary for designs that must comply up to Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL3).

By leveraging this pre-tested package, system designers can simplify their certification process, reduce overall design costs, and ensure their products comply with worldwide IEC61508 standards.

In China, Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Company recently leveraged Altera’s Functional Safety Data Package for use in a modern escalator and moving sidewalk project. The company was required to adhere to China’s recently mandated safety certification process for escalators, the GB16899 standard. Altera’s Functional Safety Data Package provided a reliable, pre-certified development process that enabled Shanghai Mitsubishi to dramatically reduce development and certification cycles and accelerate time-to-market.

Christoph Fritsch, senior manager of Altera’s industrial business, commented: “With functional safety being a paramount design concern, and often a requirement under government standards, the selection of system components and a system design methodology can represent a considerable burden for a system design team. As a partner in our customers’ design efforts, Altera is providing a Functional Safety Data Package to ease the certification process and substantially reducing the work designers must perform in order to achieve critical milestones for their systems.”

Altera's Functional Safety Data Package contains safety IP cores to ensure system integrity in accordance with the IEC 61508. All of Altera's FPGAs supported in Quartus® II design software version 11.0 SP1 have been pre-qualified by TÜV Rheinland. The unique partnership between Altera and TÜV Rheinland has resulted in a verification/validation flow that embeds Altera's complete tool chain for the development of VHDL and C code, as well as for simulation and verification.

Altera's Functional Safety Data Package is available now.