Functional safety, as addressed in the standard IEC 61508, is a key requirement for a high dependability of controlled systems. In order to guarantee that the function of programmable logic controllers (PLC) complies with given safety specifications, the use of verification has proven to be useful. This contribution builds upon a recently proposed approach to verify PLC programs with time speci...

International standards that define requirements for the development of safety-related systems typically also define required confidence levels for the software tools used to develop those systems. The standards define—to a greater or lesser extent— procedures to classify, validate, certify, or qualify tools. To date, there is no common approach for tool validation, certification, and qualifica...

Model-Based Design with automatic code generation has long been employed for rapid prototyping and is increasing being used for mass production deployment. With the focus on production usage, comes the need to implement a comprehensive V&V strategy involving models and resulting code. A main principal of Model-Based Design is that generated code should behave like the simulation model. It shoul...

Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) as defined in IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 are very important for the safety of offshore oil & natural gas installations. SIS typically include the Emergency Shutdown System (ESD) that ensures that process systems return to a safe state in case of undesirable events. Partly as a consequence of the evolving “Integrated Operations” concept, a need is emerging for remo...

Recent studies show the designs of automated systems are becoming increasingly complex to meet the global competitive market. Additionally, organizations have focused on policies to achieve people’s safety and health, environmental management system, and controlling of risks, based on standards. In this context, any industrial system in the event of a fault that is not diagnosed and treated cor...

Zusammenfassung. PROFIsafe [1] ist ein nach IEC 61508 [6] entwickeltes und geprüftes Sicherheitsprofil für die weit verbreiteten Feldbusprotokolle PROFIBUS [7] und PROFINET [8]. Es wurde von einem Konsortium von mehr als 20 internationalen Herstellern und Endanwendern definiert. Der 2007 publizierte IEC-Standard [9] enthält informelle, semiformale und formale Bestandteile. In diesem Papier beri...

Relatively few investigation techniques have been specifically developed to identify the causal factors that contribute to mishaps involving safety-critical computer systems. This is a significant omission because a number of factors distinguish this class of incidents from other mishaps. For example, the Rand report into NTSB investigation methods observed that the introduction of software con...

Programmable electronic systems are being used in almost all application sectors to perform non-safety and increasingly to perform safety functions as well. Although software based solutions are usually superior to hardwired ones for reasons of e ciency and exibility, there is a certain reluctance of the certi cation authorities when it comes to licensing computer based systems which are classi...

In diesem Beitrag werden die Herausforderung erörtert, die sich aus dem neuen Sicherheitsstandard (ISO/WD 26262) für die Automobilindustrie ergeben und ein praktikables Vorgehen vorgestellt, wie die Anforderungen der Norm effizient umzusetzen sind. 1 Motivation und Ausgangssituation Der Anteil eingebetteter Softwaresysteme im Automobil ist innerhalb weniger Jahrzehnte rasant gestiegen. Heute si...

Requirement 1—To use reliable components. This means ICs with a sufficiently low FIT rate. FIT rates are often calculated according to standards such as IEC 62380 or SN 29500, which base their results on the average failure rate seen in the field for various types of components. Alternatively, data can be based on accelerated life testing such as that found at analog.com/ReliabilityData. One im...