Green Hills ports safety software to TI AM26x microcontroller

Green Hills Software has recently announced the addition of safety software support for the AM26x Sitara family of microcontrollers from Texas Instruments (TI). The AM263x, AM263Px, and AM261x MCUs are now capable of running the ISO 26262 ASIL D-certified µ-velOSity real-time operating system (RTOS) along with the MULTI integrated development environment (IDE) for multi-core debugging.

This integrated platform is specifically designed for software-defined vehicle electronics that necessitate safety-certification, real-time processing, advanced motor-control topologies, and analytics at the edge. The AM26x MCU portfolio offers multiple pin-to-pin compatible devices with up to four 400MHz ARM Cortex-R5F cores that can be programmed to run in lockstep or dual-core mode, supporting ASIL D functional safety.

Furthermore, the safety and security hardware features of the AM26x MCUs include cryptographic acceleration, secure boot through a Hardware Security Module (HSM), Error-Correcting Code (ECC), Built-In Self-Test (BIST), and other processor integrity checking mechanisms. Green Hills Software has also integrated the TI Driver Porting Layer (DPL) to provide comprehensive device driver support for the AM263x/AM263Px/AM261x MCUs.

Na Kong, Automotive Application Specific MCU Product Line Manager at TI, emphasized the significance of the AM26x microcontrollers, stating, “The AM26x high-performance microcontrollers offer the real-time control features needed to serve motor control and digital power applications.” Kong also highlighted the benefits of complementing these MCUs with Green Hills safety-certified solutions, providing customers with a streamlined development path for their safety-critical designs.

Dan Mender, Vice President of Business Development at Green Hills Software, expressed the collaborative effort with Texas Instruments in enabling customers with highly integrated software and hardware solutions for advanced safety systems. Mender emphasized that this combination ensures rapid development, efficient debugging, and unmatched optimization, facilitating cost-effective and timely delivery of safety-certified solutions across various industrial and automotive applications.

In addition to the RTOS and IDE, the software package includes TI SysConfig Integration for visualization and automation of AM26x MCU driver configuration, as well as History Viewer for intuitive visualization of system events over time. The software also features safety-certified C/C++ optimizing compilers and run-time libraries, along with tools such as the MISRA C Adherence Wizard for enforcing MISRA C rules and DoubleCheck for user-based static source code analysis during compilation.