Simplified functional safety needs with new code coverage testing and diagnostic tool

20-01-2020 | Microchip Technology | Subs & Systems

Microchip Technology has announced TÜV SÜD certification of its MPLAB XC compilers for functional safety, simplifying the functional safety qualification process for the company's PIC, AVR and SAM MCUs and dsPIC DSCs. To further ease testing and diagnostics, the company also launched MPLAB Code Coverage license, which defines parts of software that have or have not been executed with the least impact to the application.

The MPLAB XC functional compilers certified by TÜV SÜD aid in meeting the verification and validation demands specified in the ISO 26262 standard for automotive safety, IEC 61508 for industrial applications, IEC 62304 for medical software and IEC60730 for automatic electric controls. The compilers will be packaged with extra documentation for qualification of the MPLAB X IDE and MPLAB debuggers and programmers. With no annual renewal fees, the licenses are claimed to be the lowest-cost solution on the market. Using the company's MCUs with the functional safety licenses will decrease application costs and time to market.

“Functional safety tools for many MCU products today can be quite costly," said Rodger Richey, Microchip's senior director of development systems.

“Microchip supplies our functional safety products for one-third of the price of some competitive solutions and provides unparalleled worldwide technical support to speed time to market and further simplify the development cycle.”

“As a long-term supplier into automotive applications, we understand and respond to our customers need to reduce development time and optimise cost of safety-critical products,” said Steve Drehobl, senior vice president of Microchip’s 8- and 16-bit microcontroller business units. “We continue to expand our portfolio of microcontrollers targeting safety applications to offer the perfect match of features and value”.

By Natasha Shek