15 February 2012
MCUs simplify compliance for safety system designers says Freescale
Freescale Semiconductor has announced the availability of a new family of microcontrollers, based on Power Architecture technology, targeting industrial applications with functional safety requirements.
According to Freescale, Single chip, dual core PXS20 devices provide a cost effective alternative to traditional multichip safety systems and offer a streamlined solution to simply certification and reduce design time.
The first available family in Freescale's PX series of mcus is the PXS20 which targets industrial applications that require compliance with IEC61511 and IEC61508 (SIL 3) safety standards. Built on two e200 Power Architecture cores, devices in the series are designed to reduce complexity and component count by integrating key functional safety features on a single chip.
"In industrial markets such as factory automation, process controls, rail, aviation and medical, the need for functional safety and stringent safety certification has intensified," said Geoff Lees, vice president of Freescale's Industrial and Multi-Market MCU business. "Freescale's powerful PXS20 MCU family offers a new approach to functional safety applications and simplifies the path to system-level standards compliance, saving time, money and effort."
All devices in the PXS20 family use a dual core safety platform with a safety concept targeting systems featuring IEC61508 (SIL 3) safety integrity level. On chip redundancy is offered for the critical components of the mcu, which include the cpu core, memory controllers, timers, watchdogs and more. The PXS20 also has the ability to control up to two brushless dc motors or multiple actuators.
Author
Chris Shaw
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.freescale.com/
Companies
Freescale Semiconductor UK Ltd
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