Innovations in Distributed
Functional Safety

This white paper describes innovations in hardware functional safety that will be available in future safety-critical products from Imagination. These patent-pending techniques are for processing cores which require Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL)-B levels of protection while incurring the smallest possible area, power and performance costs.

This 14 page technical document covers:

1. Introduction: the innovations in hardware functional safety for future safety-critical products, focusing on achieving ASIL-B protection with minimal overhead.
2. ASIL-B and ASIL-D Defined: the definitions and requirements of ASIL-B and ASIL-D, including the risk model and target metrics for safety.
3. Architectural Metric Targets: the target metrics for diagnostic coverage and reliability for ASIL-B and ASIL-D development.
4. Lock-Step Explained: insights into the conventional Dual-Core Lock-Step (DCLS) approach for achieving ASIL-D requirements in processors.
5. Work Group Protection for GPU Explained: insights into the Work Group Protection (WGP) approach for GPUs, which involves running workloads on separate clusters and comparing results.
6. Distributed Functional Safety: SRAM, Busses and Processing: introduction to a Distributed Safety Mechanisms (DSMs) approach for detecting hardware errors without duplicating workloads, focusing on SRAM, busses, and processing logic.
7. Distributed Safety Mechanisms for Processing Logic: deeper insights into Imagination’s new Distributed Safety Mechanisms approach for detecting faults in processing logic, including the new patent-pending safety pairs, idle cycle stealing, and test vectors technique.
8. Alternatives to Safety Pairs: alternative DSMs for functions where safety pairs are not suitable, such as exact duplicates and approximate computing.
9. Mixing Distributed Safety Mechanisms to achieve ASIL-B: the area, delay, and power (ADP) implications of different approaches to achieving ASIL-B qualification for processors.
10. ADP benefits of Distributed Safety Mechanisms: the ADP benefits of DSMs compared to traditional approaches, highlighting significant improvements in power-performance-area metrics.
11. Conclusion: The conclusion summarizes the advantages of employing distributed safety mechanisms for achieving inherent safety in processing cores with minimal overhead.

Use the form on the right to download this white paper to learn more.