Automotive safety and security program from Renesas eases ISO26262 compliance

Date: 16/01/2015
While progressively electronics taking control of driving in cars, the safety of passengers inside car is dependent more on the hack free and absolute zero-error electronics hardware and software used in automotives. High level of security against intruders and unwanted data allowance is directly related to safety of the driver and co-passengers inside the car and also other vehicles and people on the road. With the growing amount of electronics in automotives, the complexity of safety and security is also exponentially increasing.

Leading automotive semiconductor companies have huge experience, when it comes to reliability of semiconductor components they make, absolute hundred percent reliability is required. The expertise what they have built up over the time can help automotive electronics OEMs in taking care of safety-related design process in their new designs. Japanese leading automotive semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics has leveraged its experience and expertise in safety and security and is offering “Safety and Security Support Program for Automotive” basically helping automotive electronics designers in saving time and avoid re-spin of designs.

The new standards for automotive safety ISO26262, is praised across the industry and its robust coverage of all aspects. The software components sensors, architecture, semiconductor chips, interface and need to be selected so that they comply with ISO26262. The overall development burden on automotive design engineers due to ISO26262 compliance has increased by 40 to 50%, according to Renesas.

The Renesas services related to safety and security incorporates ISO26262-certified Renesas automotive semiconductor products, software, analytic tools, work products, instruction, and consulting. ISO26262 not only demands component level safety process but also more at system level process such as constructing a safety concept, quantitative and qualitative safety analysis, and confirmation measures. Renesas also suggests the automotive electronics designers to get ready for second edition of the ISO 26262 standard, which will result in additional requirements and further development burden increase on car manufacturers.

Renesas safety and security package covers functionalities for autonomous driving systems in self driving vehicle.

The latest technology includes vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communication, where the new security standards takes care of threat analysis and risk analysis, and achieving compliance is expected to impose an increasing development burden moving forward.

Renesas' Safety and Security Support Program for Automotive helps early realization of self-driving vehicles and the program will cover Renesas’ automotive semiconductor products, beginning with a solution for body systems employing the RH850 Family of microcontrollers (MCUs). The first offering will be available from January 30, 2015.

The various features of Renesas Safety and Security Support Program for Automotive as stated in its release includes:

(1) Tools drawing on Renesas’ proven track record and superior expertise in safety and security threat analysis
Renesas has compiled a database of use cases derived from the company’s automotive experiences and insights as the global automotive semiconductor market leader, and its unmatched expertise in device development.
The program will utilize this database to provide system manufacturers with tools, matched to the system configuration, for safety and security threat analysis that provides a safer driving experience. This will enable customers to easily apply the optimized architecture demanded by standards requirements to their development process, reducing the amount of compliant work needed for safety analysis and security threat analysis.

(2) Software closely linked to hardware to support system development
The program provides support that makes it easy to develop diagnostic software for aspects that are tightly bound to the hardware, enabling the customer to build systems that meet hardware safety and security requirements. Specifically, it provides software for implementing CPU self-diagnostics, miscellaneous diagnostics, and security functions.
In addition, when considering automotive security, safety application notes and safety analysis provide a variety of correlations and enhance affinity with the development process. The customer can easily develop diagnostic and other software needed to build a system, simply by following these analysis procedures. This means that their attention can then be focused on tasks such as application software development.

(3) Bundled work products incorporating Renesas’ unmatched expertise in functional safety and security
The Renesas team includes more than 150 qualified functional safety managers and reviewers with abundant expertise in product development. To address security, Renesas has a number of experts with extensive knowledge of IC cards, etc., and the company has been an active participant in standardization activities worldwide.

The program supplies system manufacturers with work products, including confirmation measure reports and verification reports backed by Renesas’ accumulated knowledge and expertise, as part of the bundled services. Where needed, the program also provides services such as verification support, instruction (e-learning), and consulting. These forms of support are designed to provide customers with the solutions they require and help them develop safe systems.

Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
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