Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2006-) | Subject: TMS570
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 November 2006
Dual-core MCU meets top automotive
safety standard
The TMS570 MCU is the first automotive processor solution to support a certification according to the IEC61508 SIL3 standard.
Accelerating the trend towards safer, but less complex automotive chassis control applications, Texas Instruments has introduced a new symmetrical dual-core microcontroller (MCU) The TMS570 MCU is the first automotive processor solution to support a certification according to the IEC61508 SIL3 standard - the highest level of safety that is designated for automotive applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 4 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Codeveloped with Robert Bosch, a leading global supplier of automotive technology, the TMS570 MCU will be implemented in next generation braking, steering and chassis control applications.
The TMS570 MCU platform uses two identical ARM Cortex R4 cores combined with an initial 2Mbyte of on-chip Flash memory.
Targeted applications include chassis control, braking/electronic vehicle stability and steering with higher and lower memory and performance variations planned.
The dual cores are tightly coupled by a patent pending architecture for maximum reliability, while memory is protected by error-correcting code (ECC) bit checking.
As vehicles become more complex and integrate more features, safety standardisation is becoming increasingly important among automakers and OEMs.
The TMS570 device integrates the Cortex R4 cores in an innovative and unprecedented design that enables failure detection and response times required by the IEC61508 standard.
Software development for the dual-core TMS570 MCU becomes less complex by eliminating a dedicated checker MCU algorithm and communication overhead between the main controller and the checker MCU thus reducing development time and cost.
The FlexRay networking protocol is also implemented directly on the TMS570 MCU further increasing integration.
This deterministic communications standard developed by the leading automotive manufacturers and suppliers offers fully deterministic and fault tolerant communications for advanced automotive systems.
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