TÜV-Qualified FPGAs for Functional Safety Designs

To simplify and speed up your safety certification process, Altera received a certificate from TÜV Rheinland for:

Altera^® devices
Diagnostic and standard intellectual property (IP) such as the Nios^® II processor
FPGA design flow
Development tools such as Quartus^® II software

Our pre-qualified Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL3) Functional Safety Data Package shortens IEC 61508 development time and reduces certification risks in safety-critical industrial applications, such as servo and inverter drives, safety devices, and automation controllers. Figure 1 shows a typical dual-channel SIL3 industrial "safe" system implemented with two FPGAs. Contact your local Altera representative for more information on the IP-ABG-SafetyDP1 (1 year) or the IPR-ABG-SafetyDP1 (renewal) packages.

Figure 1. A Typical Dual-Channel SIL3 Industrial "Safe" System Implemented with Two FPGAs

Figure 1. Functional Safety adds to design complexity

TÜV-Qualified Safety Data Package Contents

Guidelines on how to use the approved Altera FPGA development methodology and tools to design IEC 61508 certifiable systems
Functional Safety Silicon Integration application note, showing how to qualify devices using the reliability report
Functional Safety Tools and Tool Flow application note, showing how to use Quartus II software and develop FPGAs systems according to IEC 61508
Diagnostic IP with IEC 61508 standard documentation and source code to monitor the integrity of the FPGA, memory, and clock signals
Comprehensive guidelines on using the data to correctly calculate failure in time (FIT) rates of FPGA devices and systems required for safety certification
Latest FPGA device reliability reports
TÜV Rheinland qualification certificate

Qualification data at the FPGA device level means you can benefit from the flexibility of FPGAs without having to provide the required data and assessment for the IEC 61508 or equivalent standards. Normally, you have to collect and document device and tool data for submission to the assessor. With Altera's Functional Safety Data Package, the device qualification process has been done for you. According to some of our customers, you can reduce system development time by up to two years from start to certification. TÜV is one assessor, and their standards are honored by the network of functional safety assessors.

To learn more about functional safety, please download the Developing Functional Safety Systems with TÜV-Qualified FPGAs (PDF) white paper and Reducing Steps to Achieve Safety Certification (PDF).

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