Arteris Adds Functional Safety to NoC

Arteris Inc.has joined hands with Yogitech S.p.A. to help automotive system-on-chip (SoC) designers meet the required functional safety metrics and obtain the ISO 26262 certification for automotive safety integrity levels (ASIL) in the least possible time.

Arteris—which provides network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions—will license the fRSVC_flexNoC Safety Verification Component from Yogitech to jump start the safety analysis and verification of its FlexNoC Resilience Package IP for accomplishing safety objectives in a much faster way.

“Customers who license the Arteris FlexNoC Resilience Package from Arteris will also be able to license the fRSVC_FlexNoC Safety Verification Component from Yogitech,” said Kurt Shuler, VP of Marketing at Arteris. “Many of Arteris’ Resilience Package customers are already longtime customers of Yogitech, so this partnership makes it very convenient for these companies to integrate Arteris FlexNoC into their existing functional safety analysis and verification processes.”

Arteris and Yogitech: ISO 26262 certification solution

Shuler calls Yogitech’s offerings “functional safety verification IP.” Yogitech is now developing the fRSVC_FlexNoC Safety Verification Component for FlexNoC. It’s going to be a component to the Yogitech Safety Designer and Safety Verifier Tool Suites that will make it easier for FlexNoC users to automate the required ISO 26262 test coverage and fault injection needed for certification.

Arteris will also be adding safety documentation to the existing FlexNoC Resilience Package IP. “Arteris is working with Yogitech to create this safety documentation to ensure it meets ISO 26262 requirements,” Shuler added. “Having this available to customers will make it easier for them to create the necessary ISO 26262 for their custom design.”

According to Shuler, implementing functional safety features in hardware is crucial for three reasons. First, the software-centric approach for implementing safety features in automotive SoCs involves a lot more effort to develop and maintain than using a certifiable hardware IP.

Second, software can be violated, and ultimately, the chipmaker will have to be answerable for safety risks. Third, chipmakers, which come at tier 4 in automotive products hierarchy, have to leave the software implementation of safety features to tier 1 and third-party players and thus they lose control of safety features.

The partnership between Arteris and Yogitech is targeting compliance with the ISO 26262 functional safety standard for SoC design teams. However, Arteris and Yogitech will also extend the offering to the IEC 61508 standard, addressing safety-related industrial markets such as robotic systems.

Anatomy of NoC IP Partnership

Yogitech—a leading player in creating the ISO 26262 safety spec—provides services and solutions to semiconductor outfits and system integrators to help meet functional safety demands.Its customer portfolio includes chipmakers such as Renesas, STMicro and TI; IP vendors like ARM; and system integrators as such Bosch and Denso. Yogitech, being part of the entire value chain, is able to help its customers with a broad view of the automotive SoC market.

Mauro Pipponzi, Director of fRTools at Yogitech, said that the partnership with Arteris involves a number of steps. First, it will produce a functional safety analysis and verification on the Arteris FlexNoC IP in order to generate the Safety Manual of the IP and the Safety Documentation Package, including the data—both analysis and verification—characterizing the IP from safety standpoint.

Second, according to Pipponzi,is the development of the fRSVC_FlexNoC Safety Verification Component, packaging safety documentation data in a format reusable with Yogitech fRTools during the integration of the IP.

Third, Pipponzi concluded, is the use of the fRSVC_FlexNoC by Arteris end customers. They will be able to integrate the FlexNoC IP in their SoCs using the fRSVC_FlexNoCand together with Yogitech Safety Designer and Safety Verifier Tool Suites and achieve safety objectives on their products with safety metrics and verification data being already provided.

Safety Verification Component for FlexNoC

According to Arteris’ Shuler, connected car standards like Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and V2V/V2I are all about functional safety. He added that stringent reliability becomes a requirement for automotive SoCs when they interact with the vehicle system for either acceleration or deceleration. Moreover, the addition of cameras and sensors to connected car platforms like ADAS will require greater processing power and that will lead to computation consolidation for automotive SoCs.

Shuler added that consumer electronics and mobile SoC makers like Nvidia and Qualcomm are new to safety features that are imperative to in-car electronics. That’s why they are adopting IP for car safety and are becoming Arteris customers.

Image credit: Arteris Inc.