Tips and Tricks: Using FPGAs in reliable automotive system design
By Kerry Howell, Lattice Semiconductor
automotivedesignline.com (January 15, 2009)
For FPGAs to be part of an ultra-reliable design, designers must protect the valid FPGA configuration used for initialization and prevent SRAM corruption during device operation
The increased use of complex automotive electronics systems requires that they be designed for "ultra-reliability," because the failure of an automotive system could place the vehicle's passengers in a life-threatening situation. System designers are considering the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) more frequently in these systems, due to the FPGA's ability to integrate and perform complex functions.
However, there are two primary concerns regarding the use of FPGAs in automotive systems: The need to protect the valid FPGA configuration used for initialization, and prevention of SRAM corruption during device operation. Unless these concerns are fully addressed, FPGAs cannot be part of an ultra-reliable automotive system design.
Fortunately, current AEC-Q100 qualified FPGAs incorporate several advanced features that resolve these concerns. This article will highlight several solutions that address both the initialization configuration and potential SRAM corruption issues.
automotivedesignline.com (January 15, 2009)
For FPGAs to be part of an ultra-reliable design, designers must protect the valid FPGA configuration used for initialization and prevent SRAM corruption during device operation
The increased use of complex automotive electronics systems requires that they be designed for "ultra-reliability," because the failure of an automotive system could place the vehicle's passengers in a life-threatening situation. System designers are considering the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) more frequently in these systems, due to the FPGA's ability to integrate and perform complex functions.
However, there are two primary concerns regarding the use of FPGAs in automotive systems: The need to protect the valid FPGA configuration used for initialization, and prevention of SRAM corruption during device operation. Unless these concerns are fully addressed, FPGAs cannot be part of an ultra-reliable automotive system design.
Fortunately, current AEC-Q100 qualified FPGAs incorporate several advanced features that resolve these concerns. This article will highlight several solutions that address both the initialization configuration and potential SRAM corruption issues.
To read the full article, click here
Related Semiconductor IP
Related Articles
- Get More Reliable Automotive ICs with a Shift Left Design Approach
- Designing FPGA Based Reliable Systems Using Virtex-5 System Monitor
- A 24 Processors System on Chip FPGA Design with Network on Chip
- Creating highly reliable FPGA designs
Latest Articles
- Automated Multi-Line Bug Repair Using Model Checker Aided LLMs: A Case Study on RISC-V Processors
- Cryogenic Recharacterization of a Commercial 22 nm FD-SOI Foundry Standard-Cell Library
- A 105 MS/s 4.18 nJ/inference 0.765 mm² Mixed-Signal Streaming ML Engine for Wireless Baseband in 12LP+ FinFET
- Agentic AI for Heterogeneous System Design Across Chip, Scale-Up, and Scale-Out Domains
- Minimum RISC-V: Maximum FPGA Efficiency