ARM releases chip for safety-critical devices like autonomous car systems

ARM on Tuesday announced the release of a new chip, called the Cortex-R5, that's designed for real-time embedded systems with critical safety needs, such as autonomous driving or surgical automation. STMicroelectronics is the first ARM partner to announce it's licensing the new processor to build highly integrated SoCs for the automotive market. The new chip was developed to meet the requirements of the most stringent industrial safety standards (IEC 61508 SIL 3) and automotive safety standards (ISO 26262 ASIL D), making it easy to adopt. It also uses hardware to simplify its integration into complex real-time software environments, as well as to separate software tasks to protect and isolate safety-critical code. This allows the hardware to be managed by a software hypervisor. "The Cortex-R52 supports our Smart Driving vision by enabling a new range of high-performance, power-efficient SoCs for any in-vehicle application demanding real-time operation and the highest levels of functional safety, including powertrain, chassis and ADAS," Fabio Marchiò, Automotive Digital Division General Manager of STMicroelectronics, said in a statement.