Hong Kong, May 19, 2015 — Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced the release of the latest version (Ver. 3) of the Industrial Functional Safety Data Package for system designers using Altera field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This safety pack provides tool flows, IP, and devices (such as Cyclone V FPGAs) certified by TUV Rheinland, enabling the rapid development of industrial safety solutions that must meet Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL3) of the IEC 61508 standard.

Under industrial safety regulations, industrial equipment must be certified so that electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic systems performing safety functions comply with industrial standard safety guidelines. Typically, these products must meet up to SIL3 of the IEC 61508 standard and PL e Cat 4 (performance level category 4) of the ISO 13849 standard.

In addition, as the complexity of safety design increases, the need to provide advanced safety features and integrate safety features with applications has arisen, leading to a need for enhanced certification tool flows, such as the Altera Safety Design Partitioning tool flow provided in this latest version of the Functional Safety Data Package. By using this partitioning tool flow, designers can separate the parts of a design to which safety is applied from those to which it is not, allowing the non-safety parts to be updated with minimal safety re-certification work.

Roger May, who is responsible for “Functional Safety” in Altera’s Industrial Business Unit, said, “Without access to certified tool flows like Altera’s safety packages, customers would have to handle the certification of tools and devices themselves, which would involve using outdated tools and less capable, older technologies. By utilizing our company’s third-generation Functional Safety Data Package, customers can continue to trust and use Altera’s latest devices and tool flows, and solve the challenges they face when designing safety systems today.”

More information about Altera’s industrial automation and “functional safety” solutions can be found at https://www.altera.com/solutions/industry/industrial/applications/automation/funtional-safety.html.

Altera-based boards provided by NewTec

Altera also announced that it is offering the Cyclone V-based SafeFlex Functional Safety board from its partner, NewTec. This board, which was demonstrated at the SPS IC Drives exhibition held in Nuremberg in November 2014, meets IEC 61508 SIL 3 and ISO 13849 PL e Cat 4 standards. By utilizing this board, along with the accompanying documentation and reference design, even system designers with no prior experience in safety will be able to understand how to effectively build safety systems that meet SIL3 and PL e Cat 4 standards using Altera FPGAs, thereby accelerating and shortening development work. More information about the SafeFlex board can be found at www.newtec.de/web/en/spectrum/SafetySolutions/SafeFlex/SafeFlex.php.

Altera's Cyclone FPGA

Altera's Cyclone® V FPGAs not only enable the industry's lowest system cost and power but also provide the performance required to differentiate high-volume applications. Compared to previous generation devices, they offer up to 40 percent lower power and provide high flexibility for system designers by offering various logic densities and transceiver-integrated derivatives.