Industrial Control and Others-Functional Safety Compliances-Trinity Technologies

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Functional Safety Compliances

Industrial Control and Others

Provide the software development and testing solution to satisfy IEC 61508 SIL standards

Over the past century, the development of industrial technology has undergone the steam engine era, the electrification era, and the information technology era, and is now on the verge of entering the intelligent era of Industry 4.0, which leverages information technology to drive industrial transformation. Technologies such as computer software, networks, integrated circuits, big data, artificial intelligence, and digitalization will inevitably be widely applied across all industrial sectors, including typical industries such as petroleum, chemicals, power, environment, security, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Embedded software plays a crucial role in this process, determining various aspects of control systems, including control strategies, business logic, reliability, and security.

As early as May 2000, the International Electrotechnical Commission officially released the IEC 61508 standard, titled “Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Safety Systems.” This standard is divided into seven parts, stipulating that the consequences of random failures must be quantitatively assessed, with the effectiveness calculated using the Random Access Measurement System (RAMS) method. Based on the IEC 61508 standard, other related industries have further developed standards tailored to specific business needs, such as ISO 26262 for the automotive electronics industry, EN 50128 for rail transportation, and IEC 60880 for the nuclear industry. The core concept of IEC 61508 is the Safety Integrity Level (SIL), which includes four safety integrity levels from SIL1 to SIL4. Part 3 of IEC 61508 specifically details the safety, reliability, and development processes for the software components of control systems to ensure that safety-related software meets the overall system's safety integrity level requirements.

For product development teams in these fields, how to meet functional safety requirements based on the IEC 61508 standard and how to ensure product safety are among the most critical issues that cannot be overlooked.

Demands and Challenges

What specific requirements does the IEC 61508 standard impose on software development processes and testing?
How to balance efficiency, quality, and compliance?
Code static testing and unit testing are too inefficient.
Which stages of black-box testing, gray-box testing, and white-box testing can be automated?
What are the key differences between embedded software and host computer software in terms of testing requirements and methods?
What automated tools are available to improve software design and testing efficiency?
What are the requirements of IEC 61508 SIL certification for auxiliary automation development and testing tools?

Solutions

Code static analysis, using the authoritative static analysis tool QAC to meet common coding standards such as MISRA and AutoSAR, and perfectly complying with the IEC 61508 standard for code static analysis.
Unit testing and integration testing: VectorCAST is used to verify the reliability and correctness of software unit modules, quickly meeting the requirements of IEC 61508 for unit testing.
Black-box testing, provided by Vector's HiL system test platform integrated with “VT System + vTESTstudio + CANoe,” offers physical hardware simulation and system testing solutions for high-reliability embedded systems.
Gray box testing, DT10 supports embedded system execution tracking, complex defect tracing, performance testing, etc.
Test coverage analysis throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC) to meet the certification audit requirements of IEC 61508 at all levels.
Use Visure Requirements to manage requirements and achieve traceability throughout the software lifecycle in accordance with IEC 61508 requirements.
The commonly used tools provided have been certified and verified by a third-party authoritative institution as complying with the IEC 61508 standard.
Software testing outsourcing services.

Particularly Noteworthy

Code Static Analysis
Unit Testing
Performance Testing
System Testing
Traceability

Code Static Analysis

IEC 61508 requires that the software development process adhere to a unified coding standard. The QAC code static analysis tool can automatically and authoritatively analyze code compliance, enabling users to quickly and accurately identify non-compliant code, hidden code defects, and structurally unreasonable code, and address common code errors during the initial coding phase. QAC supports common coding standards such as MISRA C/C++, AutoSAR C++14, CERT C/C++, CWE C/C++, HiCPP, and JSF, and is compatible with over 30 mainstream development and compilation environments. The QAC tool has been certified by a third-party institution. By using the QAC code static analysis tool, users can quickly meet the requirements of IEC 61508 for code static analysis.
Unit Testing

IEC 61508 requires testing of the underlying design requirements, which is typically accomplished through unit testing. Verification of the reliability and correctness of individual functions or modules composed of multiple functions can all be categorized under unit testing. Compared to system-level testing of software, unit testing is more cumbersome, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. For embedded software with IEC 61508 compliance requirements, unit testing is particularly challenging due to difficulties in test-driven development, execution environments, and coverage statistics, making it nearly impossible to perform manually. VectorCAST's embedded software dynamic testing tool offers a specialized automated solution for IEC 61508, leveraging automated test environment creation, automatic test case generation, a graphical test case design platform, flexible management mechanisms, comprehensive coverage statistics, and robust support for over 40 common development environments to effectively boost unit testing efficiency by 70-80%. VectorCAST has also been certified by international authoritative institutions and fully complies with the SIL certification requirements based on IEC 61508.
Performance Testing

Using the DT10 dynamic testing and tracking debugging tool, you can track the execution process of software over a long period of time and measure and analyze the execution performance of various functions, modules, tasks, code blocks, CPU load, and other dimensions in real time. Compared with traditional performance testing using oscilloscopes, the performance testing solution provided by DT10 is more efficient and makes it easier to locate performance anomalies and identify the root cause of problems in the source code.
System Testing

The Vector HiL embedded system network physical simulation and system testing platform, composed of “VT System + vTESTstudio + CANoe,” provides industrial control and general embedded systems with an integrated physical simulation and testing solution that includes test design, test execution, network analysis, I/O interfaces, and stimulus hardware boards. This solution helps users accelerate the establishment of testing environments, testing automation, and automatic regression testing, significantly improving testing efficiency and reducing labor costs. The Vector HiL system testing platform can be integrated with VectorCAST's structural coverage statistics functionality and the Visure requirements management platform to form a one-stop testing and reporting solution.
Traceability

Using the Visure Requirements Management System, manage the design process at all levels, from high-level product design to high-level design to low-level detailed design, and integrate with commonly used development and testing systems to meet the IEC 61508 standard's requirements for software requirement traceability. More specifically, achieve bidirectional traceability between all stages of the R&D process, including:

• Between software system requirements and high-level design

• Between high-level design and detailed design

• Between software requirements and test cases

• Between test cases and defects

This ultimately forms the Requirements Traceability Matrix . The primary purpose of the traceability requirements in IEC 61508 is to ensure consistency and accuracy of information across all stages of the R&D process, as well as efficient change impact analysis, thereby ensuring that the final deliverables do not deviate from the intended objectives.