Hercules is a line of
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
-based microcontrollers from
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
built around one or more
ARM Cortex cores. This "Hercules safety microcontroller platform" includes a series of microcontrollers specifically targeted for
Functional Safety Functional safety is the part of the overall safety of a system or piece of equipment that depends on automatic protection operating correctly in response to its inputs or failure in a predictable manner (fail-safe). The automatic protection system ...
applications, through such hardware-base fault correction/detection features as dual cores that can run in
lock-step, full path
ECC, automated self testing of memory and logic, peripheral redundancy, and monitor/checker cores.
This line includes the TMS470M, TMS570 and RM4 families. These families were "designed specifically for
IEC 61508 and
ISO 26262 safety critical applications". However, they differ significantly in the ''degree'' of support for these safety standards:
;TMS470
*Value Line Transportation and Safety MCUs
*Supports Safety for
**IEC 61508 systems
;RM4
*High Performance Industrial and Medical Safety MCUs
*Developed to Safety Standards
**IEC 61508 SIL-3
;TMS570
*High Performance Transportation and Safety MCUs
*Developed to Safety Standards
**IEC 61508 SIL-3
**ISO 26262
ASIL D
::In particular, TMS570 support for
ASIL D is accomplished through
dual lock-step cores.
See also
*
IEC 61508 (
Functional Safety Functional safety is the part of the overall safety of a system or piece of equipment that depends on automatic protection operating correctly in response to its inputs or failure in a predictable manner (fail-safe). The automatic protection system ...
Standard)
*
ISO 26262 (Automotive Functional Safety Standard)
*
Qorivva
Qorivva is a line of Power ISA, Power ISA 2.03-based microcontrollers from Freescale built around one or more PowerPC e200 cores. Within this line are a number of products specifically targeted for functional safety applications. The hardware-bas ...
, a comparable 32-bit PowerPC safety microprocessor line from
Freescale
References
External links
Hercules Safety ARM MCUs
ARM-based microcontrollers
Texas Instruments microcontrollers
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