Dusseldorf, September 14, 2011 – Renesas Electronics Europe, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has received VDE (the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies) certification for its IEC60335-compliant self-test software for the RX600 and RL78 microcontroller (MCU) families. The latest self-test CPU software routines developed for the RX600 and RL78 families are fully compliant with IEC60730-1 regulations and have now been certified by VDE. VDE is widely recognized for its efforts on safety standards and approvals.
“This software offers high value to any firmware developers involved in safety-critical applications and appliances because the VDE approved software is suitable for all of Renesas’ RX600 and RL78 MCUs,” said Vincent Mignard, marketing engineer for white goods and motor control at Renesas Electronics Europe.
In addition to the on-chip hardware safety features, the self-test CPU software makes it easier for manufacturers of industrial, motor control and home appliances to meet IEC60730-1 (IEC60335) class B safety requirements. The IEC 60730-1/60335-1 safety standards require software running on an MCU to be able to detect any safety-critical failures according to specific fault models.
The RL78 and RX600 MCU families integrate on-chip key advanced peripherals like the CRC (cyclic redundancy check engine), the analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter which integrates a self-diagnosis function to ensure the plausibility checks, and a hardware clock monitoring function. Finally, the RL78 MCU integrates a RAM parity error check to secure the storage of safety relevant variables.
Renesas has been successfully certified for its periodic test routines for CPU registers and program counter test, stack test, RAM tests (using March X and C algorithms), Flash check (using cyclic redundancy check engines) and clock monitoring tests.
The routines are easy to integrate in any existing software and can be called after reset and periodically during run-time. This software enables the developer to easily design safety relevant software and to meet the certification process quickly and with less effort. It can reduce development time and the test harness process by up to 3 months, and the cost of certification by 15 percent.
The software source codes in C and ASM for the RX600 and RL78 families of MCUs are now available on the Renesas website with detailed timing of routines, application notes and the VDE certificate:http://www.renesas.eu/support/downloads/download_results/C1000000-C9999999/mpumcu/rx/an_r01an0654eg_rx62t_apl.jsp
About Renesas Electronics Europe
Renesas Electronics Europe with its Business Operations Centre located in Dusseldorf, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions, secure MCU applications and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Renesas Electronics’ European structure is comprised of four dedicated business groups serving the region’s key markets: automotive, communications & consumer, industrial, and mobile platforms. The business groups are supported by the Engineering Group, which itself includes the Engineering Design Centre; the European Quality Centre that provides technical support to local customers in Europe; and the European Technology Centre to design leading-edge products specifically for the European market. Further information about Renesas Electronics Europe can be found at: www.renesas.eu.
