Certification and development time can be shortened by up to 24 months.

Xilinx announced that its single-chip Zynq-7000 all-programmable SoC functional safety solution will reduce the time required for IEC 61508 compliance and certification for a wide range of industrial applications, including IIoT edge controllers, motor drives, intelligent IOs, smart sensors, gateways, industrial vehicles, and power grids.

This solution includes a hardware design based on a single-chip SIL 3 and HFT=1 architecture, along with all associated documentation, assessment reports, IP, and software tools. By leveraging these resources, customers can significantly reduce risk and shorten certification and development time by up to 24 months. Furthermore, while two or more devices were previously required to meet the reliability and redundancy requirements outlined in IEC 61508, Xilinx's single-chip solution can reduce system costs by more than 40%.

The Zynq-7000 SoC is the first single-chip application processor to integrate safety and non-safety functions into a single device and to have passed functional safety assessment by TÜV Rheinland, a leading authority on safety, in compliance with the on-chip redundancy requirements specified in Part 2, Annex E of the IEC 61508 international standard.

“Xilinx has challenged what was once thought impossible and is the first company to implement a safety architecture that integrates non-safety applications with SIL 3 and HFT=1 on a single chip,” said Christoph Fritsch, director of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical market at Xilinx. “We are proud of this achievement and honored to receive recognition from the leading companies involved in this project,” said Xilinx. “Xilinx aims to support our customers by developing a SIL 3 design flow that delivers the highest level of certifiable integration and productivity.”