TI’s Dual-Core MCU Meets IEC 61508

Embarking as the first to comply with the IEC 61508 standard for safety, the TMS570 symmetrical dual-core microcontroller targets next generation braking, steering, and chassis-control applications. The TMS570 platform uses two identical ARM Limited Cortex R4 cores combined with 2 MB of flash memory. Its dual cores are tightly coupled via a patent pending architecture for maximum reliability, and ECC bit checking protects memory. Eliminating a dedicated checker MCU algorithm and communication overhead between the main controller and the checker MCU, software development for the dual-core becomes less complex. Also, the FlexRay networking protocol is implemented directly on the MCU. For more details, call TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC., Dallas, TX. (800) 477-8924.