Xilinx Reduces Risk and Increases Efficiency for IEC61508 and ISO26262 Certified Safety Applications (WP461)

This white paper introduces key dependability aspects for industrial and automotive customers who are designing and developing programmable electronic equipment for safety applications using Xilinx® FPGA and SoC devices. The main focus of this white paper is to explain how to create solutions with highly integrated, high-performance certif iable systems that target IEC 61508 / ISO 26262 norms. The goal is to achieve reduced risk, improved compliance, decreased certif ication time, and lower system cost. The designer is guided through: • The key dependable attributes of a safety design • How to use Xilinx technologies and methodologies to solve fundamental challenges relating to the design of safety systems Def inition, partitioning, and verif ication procedures, carefully developed by Xilinx over the past decade, are described in detail. Employing these proven tools and processes results in safety block design elements that are certif iable as Functionally Safe. This white paper shows how Xilinx quality and reliability data, published regularly for decades, is the cornerstone of the quantif ication of a safety design, including FIT rates and upset mitigation. Applying the All Programmable nature of Xilinx devices allows creation of architectures and functions tailored to meet dependability goals and requirements. With the Xilinx development tool chain and Isolation Design Flow (IDF) methodology, designs benef it from the implementation of diverse channels and channel redundancy, the reduction of common cause failures, and mitigation of random errors, resulting in unmatched system security and dependability.