The objective of ISO 26262 is to provide a unified safety standard for all automotive electronic systems. Achieving system safety requires implementing several safety measures in various technologies such as mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, and electronic systems, and these safety measures are applied at all levels of the development process.
Effectiveness of safety integrity levels
ISO 26262 defines various automotive safety integrity levels (ASILs)-QM, A, B, C, and D to help map the required processes, development efforts, and functional safety mechanisms within the product to an acceptable level of risk. These five levels cover a wide range from basic quality management to systems where failure can lead to fatal accidents.
Know about SoC
Automotive SoCs provide diagnostic coverage through specific hardware functions to ensure compliance with the ISO 26262 standard. These on-chip functional safety mechanisms include technologies such as error correction code (ECC), data link, and parity protection of internal memory. They intelligently replicate processing elements through an intelligent interconnect structure, built-in self-test (BIST), and error reporting mechanisms.
What kinds of guideline IOS 26262 provides?
Although ISO 26262 focuses on the functional safety of E / E systems, it actually provides a framework that addresses the entire life cycle of safety-related systems. ISO 26262 provides the following guidance:
- Lifecycle management, product development, production, operations, services, decommissioning and customization of necessary activities during these lifecycle stages.
- Apply safety requirements based on hazard severity, probability of exposure, and controllability to avoid unreasonable risks.
- Verification and validation measures to ensure an adequate and acceptable level of safety
- Requirements for relationships with suppliers.
All of this may seem complicated, but by focusing on three main areas, the understanding of the requirements of ISO 26262 can be simplified: People, Process, and Product.
What are involved under functional safety part?
Functional safety involves all parts of the development process, including specification, design, implementation, integration, certification, and verification, as well as production, management, and service processes. Due to the specific requirements of security standards, it is very difficult to build an organization that designs IP for automotive SoCs. For automotive industries, the third-party ISO 26262 certification may add significant expense to IP development.
Therefore, every organization that supplies products to the automotive semiconductor market must document standards-compliant development activities. The documentation must include the people involved, the process used to develop the solution, and the analysis of the products required to comply with the ISO 26262 standard.
