Showing posts with label ARM Cortex-R52. Show all posts
Japanese-owned chip designer ARM has today unveiled a new chip designed with safety as its key feature.
Unlike
standard chipsets, the ARM Cortex-R52 is designed to comply with the most
stringent safety standards in the automotive and industrial markets.
Such
a chipset is necessary for a number of new emergent computing fields, including
self-driving cars and medical robots.
In
these fields, compromised code on the chip itself could result in very
dangerous consequences when in use.
To
mitigate this danger, within the Cortex-R52 chip safety-critical code is fully
isolated by ‘hardware-enforced separation’ of software tasks.
“The
Cortex-R52 is the first processor built on the ARMv8-R architecture and it was
designed from the ground up to address functional safety,” said James McNiven,
general manager for CPU at ARM.
While
the chips were designed by ARM, the company has already signed a deal with
STMicroelectronics for them to be the first licensed manufacturer of the
Cortex-R52.
STMicroelectronics
themselves noted the security provided by the chips as a key selling point.
“The
Cortex-R52’s ability to compartmentalize software provides our users with the
best solution for safety without loss of determinism,” said Fabio Marchiò,
automotive digital division general manager of STMicroelectronics.
The
announcement of this chip comes at a time of growth for autonomous vehicles and
other critical robotic systems.
With
recent hacking demonstrations showing the relative insecurity of the current
chips and software used in these systems, the new ARM chip could find a strong
market niche.
The
release of the Cortex-R52 also follows ARM’s recent acquisition by Japanese
electronics company Softbank.
One
of the main drivers of this deal was for Softbank to acquire the chip
technology which would underpin the explosion of so-called Internet of Things
(IoT) devices.
As
autonomous cars and industrial/medical robots are key parts of the IoT
ecosystem, this acquisition already appears to be bearing fruit for Softbank.
Further
demonstrating the interest in this sector, key rival Intel earlier this year
acquired Yogitech, another company which specialized in designing safety chips.
ARM
has launched a new processor aimed at real-time automotive, industrial
and medical applications. The ARM Cortex-R52 advanced safety processor
addresses functional safety in compliance with the stringent ISO 26262
ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3 standards. ARM partner STMicroelectronics is
the first company to license the processor for use in an SoC targeting
the automotive market.
ARM
Cortex-R52 Key Benefits
·
- Streamlined
next generation system development with the highest level of integrated
functional safety features
· -
Simplified
integration of complex software through strong separation of mixed criticality
code without impacting real-time performance
· -
Address
higher workloads with increased performance compared to Cortex-R5
James
McNiven, general manager for CPU and media processing groups at ARM, provided
some background information about the new processor's development: "We are
helping partners to meet particular market opportunities, especially in fully
autonomous vehicles and robotics systems where specific functionality is
required for safety-critical tasks." To meet the industry safety standards
ARM has documented the strict development process, fault modelling and
supporting software isolation for the Cortex-R52.
A
functionally safe system must be protected against the occurrence of both
random and systematic errors. In an example of the car braking system, the
safety application will protect against both random hazards that can disrupt
your vehicle, and systematic issues such as design and software errors.
The
new processor works by implementing hardware-enforced separation of software
tasks. This ensures that safety-critical code is fully isolated. With this
system built-into the processor less code needs to be safety-certified, aiding
development, integration, maintenance and validation of software. In addition,
the processor design provides fast context switching that real-time systems
demand.
STMicroelectronics
will be using the ARM Cortex-R52 advanced safety processor in smart driving
applications controlling the powertrain, chassis and ADAS (Advanced Driver
Assistance System). DENSO, a leading global supplier of advanced automotive
technology, systems and components is also supporting the launch.
ARM's
new Cortex-R52 offers a 35 per cent performance uplift compared to the
Cortex-R5, which is already deployed in a range of safety applications. The new
processor scores 1.36 Automark/MHz on the EEMBC AutoBench, the highest in its
class, and is 14x faster at context switching.
For
those interested in reading further, ARM has published a comprehensive blog
post about the new Cortex-R52 safety processor.
STMicroelectronics is licensing the the Cortex-R5 to build (system on chips) SoCs for the automotive market.
ARM
on Tuesday announced the release of a new chip, called the Cortex-R5, that's
designed for real-time embedded systems with critical safety needs, such as
autonomous driving or surgical automation.
STMicroelectronics
is the first ARM partner to announce it's licensing the new processor to build
highly integrated SoCs for the automotive market.
The
new chip was developed to meet the requirements of the most stringent
industrial safety standards (IEC 61508 SIL 3) and automotive safety standards
(ISO 26262 ASIL D), making it easy to adopt. It also uses hardware to simplify
its integration into complex real-time software environments, as well as to
separate software tasks to protect and isolate safety-critical code. This
allows the hardware to be managed by a software hypervisor.
"The
Cortex-R52 supports our Smart Driving vision by enabling a new range of
high-performance, power-efficient SoCs for any in-vehicle application demanding
real-time operation and the highest levels of functional safety, including
powertrain, chassis and ADAS," Fabio Marchiò, Automotive Digital Division
General Manager of STMicroelectronics, said in a statement. "The
Cortex-R52's ability to compartmentalize software provides our users with the
best solution for safety without loss of determinism. Its virtualization
support simplifies the consolidation of applications and functions into a
single processor, delivering a shorter integration time."
The
new processor, the first built on the ARMv8-R architecture, comes a couple
weeks after Softbank finalized its acquisition of ARM with the intent of
pushing into the Internet of Things.
