New MCUs ease IEC 61508 SIL 3 and ISO 26262 ASIL-D system certification with dual floating-point ARM Cortex-R4F cores in lockstep, integrated diagnostics and safety documentation
Designed to help developers obtain safety certifications, Texas Instruments Incorporated announced its new Hercules safety microcontroller platform for medical, industrial and transportation applications. The platform consists of three ARM Cortex-based microcontroller families that deliver scalable performance, connectivity, memory and safety features for applications that require a high level of reliability. Unlike many microcontrollers that rely heavily on software for safety capabilities, Hercules microcontrollers implement safeguards in hardware to maximize performance and reduce software overhead. Coupled with robust tools, software and safety documentation, this functionality gives developers the headroom to differentiate their end products and speed time to market.
Hercules safety microcontrollers are rooted in TI's 20+ years of safety-critical system expertise, industry collaboration and proven hardware for the automotive market. The new Hercules RM4x family provides the highest levels of performance for broad applications, including medical and industrial. The Hercules TMS570 family addresses transportation applications and the Hercules TMS470M family cost-efficiently meets the needs of applications that require less performance.
Features and benefits of the Hercules RM4x MCU family:
- Up to 220 MHz based on dual ARM Cortex-R4F floating-point cores in lockstep, providing high performance for industrial automation, servo drives and medical instrumentation such as diagnostic and therapeutic equipment
- Supports single and double precision floating-point math to execute complex math
- Capable of achieving International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508 SIL-3 safety standard
- Ethernet, CAN, and USB connectivity for networking capabilities important to safety-critical industrial automation and medical instrumentation
- Up to 3 MB flash and 256KB RAM for feature-rich applications
Features and benefits of the Hercules TMS570 MCU family:
- Up to 180 MHz based on dual ARM Cortex-R4F floating-point cores in lockstep, providing performance for transportation applications, such as railway, aerospace and automotive
- Supports single and double precision floating-point math to execute complex math
- Capable of achieving ISO 26262 ASIL-D and IEC 61508 SIL-3 safety standards and is AEC-Q100 qualified to satisfy automotive requirements
- Operation up to 125 degrees Celsius to address transportation temperature ranges
- Ethernet, CAN, and FlexRay connectivity for higher-bandwidth networking required for existing and evolving transportation applications
- Up to 3MB flash and 256KB RAM for feature-rich applications
Features and benefits of the Hercules TMS470M MCU family:
- Up to 80 MHz based on an ARM Cortex-M3 core provides cost-efficient performance
- AEC-Q100 qualified to satisfy automotive requirements and support for IEC 61508 system safety requirements
- Local Interconnect Network (LIN) and CAN support common transportation networking
- 320 - 640KB flash and 16 – 48KB RAM address varying memory requirements
Tools and support for safety-critical development
To get started quickly, developers can use the low-cost Hercules USB Stick Development Kits (TMDXRM48USB, TMDX570LS31USB, TMDX570LS20SUSB, TMDX470MF066USB) or the full-featured Hercules Development Kits (TMDXRM48HDK, TMDX570LS31HDK, TMDX470MF066HDK). Each kit comes with all the hardware and software required to get up and running quickly, including TI's Code Composer Studio integrated development environment, HALCoGen peripheral configuration tool and a Safety Demo that showcases BIST execution and error forcing modes.
Pricing and availability
Hercules microcontrollers range from $5 – $30 USD at 10K unit quantities and are immediately available for order. The RM4x Hercules USB Stick Development Kit (TMDXRM48USB) is priced at $79 USD and the RM4x Hercules Development Kit (TMDXRM48HDK) is priced at $199 USD.
