Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera) has approved Functional Safety Language (FSL) Standard 1.0 for release, a language and data model for representing, exchanging and integrating functional safety information across the electronic systems development lifecycle.
Semiconductor devices are playing an increasingly important role in automotive, industrial, aerospace, medical and other safety-critical applications, increasing the amount and complexity of functional safety information that must be created, exchanged and maintained. While ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 define requirements for developing safety-critical systems, they do not prescribe how functional safety data should be represented or exchanged among engineering tools, teams and organizations. The release says safety information is consequently often kept in spreadsheets, proprietary databases and tool-specific formats, creating challenges for automation, interoperability and traceability.
FSL 1.0 provides a standardized language for creating and exchanging failure mode and effects analysis (FMEDA) data across the supply chain. It captures failure modes, failure-mode effects, safety mechanisms, technology information and safety requirements, and provides standardized mappings between that information and design representations. It also supports hierarchical FMEDAs, allowing analyses for products and components to be integrated into subsystem- and system-level analyses, with traceability and less need to recreate or manually translate safety information.
FSL supports assumption-based and design-mapped FMEDA methodologies, so safety analysis can begin early and be refined as design implementation progresses. It can also combine or refine estimated diagnostic coverage with measurements from verification and fault-injection activities, and supports calculation and reporting of safety-related failure rates and metrics for ISO 26262 and IEC 61508.
FSL 1.0 is a domain-specific language based on TCL syntax, enabling machine processing and integration into automated EDA and functional safety workflows. Accellera says it is designed to complement existing functional safety standards, including ISO 26262 and IEC 61508, by providing a consistent way to capture and exchange data supporting their application without changing their requirements.
Alessandra Nardi, chair of Accellera’s Functional Safety Working Group, said FSL provides a common language for safety analysis information to be created, reused, integrated and traced from one level of design to the next. She said it creates opportunities to automate functional safety workflows and more closely connect safety analysis with design and verification.
FSL 1.0 is available for immediate download.
