Sondrel has announced the second in its family of reference designs for ASICs that provide a framework to support a customer’s own IP, which results in a faster time to market and lower risk. The SFA250A is aimed at Functional Safety (FuSa) applications such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and contains an independent FuSa monitor compliant to ISO 26262 ASIL D – ASIC Safety Subsystem (ASS). Individual subsystems are responsible for the detection and, where applicable, the correction of errors. The SFA 250A has been designed to be easy to adapt to suit the support needs of the customer’s IP as it is scalable, both in terms of function and performance, as well as modular as multiple versions can be combined to form larger solutions. The datasheet can be downloaded at https://www.sondrel.com/sfa-250A-datasheet
“So often a customer has created innovative IP but has no idea how to implement this is in a chip which is a high-risk scenario,” explained Graham Curren, Sondrel’s CEO. “We are a very safe pair of hands as we have done this hundreds of times over the years for customers. We have drawn on this experience to create the Architecting the future™ family of IP platforms that are each targeted at specific application areas. Each platform has been designed so that the customer’s IP can easily be integrated into it giving up to 30% reduction in costs, risk and time to market.”
Ben Fletcher, Sondrel’s Director of Engineering, added, “Reducing risk is massively important for any complex chip design. Sondrel is constantly refining and improving processes to keep increasing the reliability and predictability of the work that we do, and avoid costly delays to customer schedules. Our detailed design practices help us to more easily deliver demanding projects that require the added dimension of functional safety.”
Sondrel looks at functional safety as being based on three pillars – Architecture, Process and Culture. While strong Process – understanding and reducing risk, keeping detailed records and audit trails, and using state-of-the-art tools in areas such as requirements tracking – is key, it is Culture that is the most important pillar. Everyone working in a functional safety environment must make sure that safety is at the top of their priority list. This philosophy has enabled Sondrel to work on FuSa designs for many companies including automotive designs to the ISO 26262 standard. For customers to have their chip comply with this standard, they have to submit an evidence bundle which is much easier to assemble when it is based on Sondrel’s SFA250A as that uses IP which is already verified to the ISO 26262 standard.
To further reduce risk and time to market, Sondrel offers a full turnkey service that turns designs into fully tested, shipping silicon.
