WITTENSTEIN Safety-Critical RTOS Extended to RX631/RX63N Microcontrollers

Renesas Electronics Europe announced that WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems (WHIS) has extended its SAFERTOS Real Time Operating System to support the 32-bit RX631 and RX63N microcontroller groups from Renesas. WHIS will be demonstrating SAFERTOS running on the RX on its stand at Embedded World 2014. SAFERTOS is an IEC 61508 SIL 3 safety-certified real time operating system that delivers high performance and dependability to safety-critical applications, while utilising minimal resources. Used throughout the industrial, medical and transportation sectors, SAFERTOS is supplied with a comprehensive Design Assurance Pack, supporting certification for a wide range of international design standards.

Renesas has developed a functional safety software package for use with its 32-bit RX631 and RX63N microcontrollers that can be integrated with SAFERTOS. The new solution provides diagnostic software for the industry-leading RX CPU core and its internal memory. A safety manual is also supplied, detailing how to use the RX631 and RX63N microcontrollers within a safety-critical development.

“Using SAFERTOS on a microcontroller supported by a functional safety software package, such as the RX631 or RX63N, results in an embedded platform designed to meet the stringent requirements of IEC 61508 SIL -3,” said Andrew Longhurst, engineering manager at WHIS. “This significantly reduces risk and project schedules in safety-critical developments, freeing engineers to work where they add the most value – on the application.”

“The availability of SAFERTOS helps our customers during the system certification process and efficiently supports our RX microcontrollers for safety applications,” said Andreas Thamm, Assistant Manager for Smart Factory in the Industrial & Communications Business Group at Renesas Electronics Europe. “The demand for pre-certified software will continue to increase in the future.”