Renesas Releases FSoE Software to Help Accelerate EtherCAT Safety
Renesas Electronics announced the extension of the RX Functional Safety solution, with the release of its Functional Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) Application Software Kit. Presented as the first software offering that supports functional safety on EtherCAT from a semiconductor manufacturer, the solution addresses industrial automation applications, reducing the complexity of IEC 61508 SIL3 certification, an international standard for functional safety.
Based on the FSoE standard published by the EtherCAT Technology Group, the world’s largest industrial Ethernet organization, developers can obtain an FSoE protocol stack in addition to an RX microcontroller (MCU) with functional safety support and the software in a single package. This allows the quick implementation of communication functions needed to support functional safety, such as essential alarms indicating danger or emergency stop signals using an RX MCU.
RX Functional Safety support is now extended to all MCUs built around the RXv3 core (e.g., the RX72M, RX72N, RX72T, RX66N, and RX66T) in addition to the previously supported MCUs built around RXv1 and RXv2 cores. Using the certified software eliminates the need for users to develop MCU-specific functional safety software and allows them to focus on developing their own application software. RX MCU users can also utilize their existing software assets when developing equipment with functional safety support, thereby significantly reducing overall development time.
RX Functional Safety is a solution that provides everything from self-diagnostics at the individual MCU level to comprehensive development support aimed at certification of user-developed equipment. The complete functional safety support enables users to shorten the certification acquisition process by more than one year. This solution provides developers with an explanation of the complex aspects of functional safety standards, helps them learn how to set up a dual MCU architecture structure, aids in the acquisition of certification for the actual software. It also helps with recertification when additional functionality is added to the system, thereby significantly reducing the development burden.
In addition, Renesas has expanded functional safety support to its RA Family of 32-bit Arm Cortex-M MCUs. RA users will have access to IEC 61508-certified software that performs self-diagnostics at the individual MCU level for the RA4M1, RA6M1, RA6M2, and RA6M3 Series at no charge starting in September 2020. Renesas plans on increasing functional safety solutions for RA MCUs in the future.
