5 Things to Know about the F75P: a Vital Embedded Computer for Safety-Critical Applications
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The f75p is a SIL 4 certifiable embedded single board computer designed for safety-critical applications, particularly in industrial automation and railway transport. It features advanced safety mechanisms, including a safe CPU architecture and a modular interface for I/O control, ensuring robust operation in harsh environments. Additionally, its pre-certifications and adherence to open industry standards lead to significant cost savings in development, maintenance, and lifecycle management.
5 Things to Know about the F75P: a Vital Embedded Computer for Safety-Critical Applications
- 1. 5 Things to Know about the F75P: a Vital Embedded Computer for Safety-Critical Applications
- 2. Done by MEN The F75P is a SIL 4 certifiable embedded single board computer based on the CompactPCI PlusIO Standard. It comes with certificates from TÜV SÜD for hardware and software, saving cost and time to market during the development and certification process of a functional safe computer system. F75P - a Vital Embedded Computer for Safety-Critical Applications
- 3. 1. Which markets and applications can be addressed with the F75P? 2. What are the functional safety principles of the F75P? 3. How rugged is the F75P? 4. What makes the F75P unique for safety-critical applications? 5. What significant cost savings are achieved with the F75P? F75P: a Vital Embedded Computer for Safety-Critical Applications
- 4. 1. Which markets and applications can be addressed with the F75P?
- 5. 1. Which markets and applications can be addressed with the F75P? Based on the robust and small footprint CompactPCI industry standard and developed according to EN 5012x railway and IEC 61508 industrial norms, the F75P is the ideal control center in industrial automation and railway trans- port, when functional safety is required. Typical examples include the interaction between mobile machines and robots with human beings in industrial automation. In the railway industry, we address – both rolling stock and wayside – Automated Train Control and Protection, and signaling systems. F75P is also the central control computer inside the Train Control System menTCS.
- 6. 2. What are the functional safety principles of the F75P?
- 7. » Safe processing hardware: The F75P is a self-contained a safe CPU board which uses 2oo2d voting. It consists of 3 Intel Atom processors (two of which being redundant CPUs that execute the safety logic), independent supervisors for each block, a fail- safe board architecture and event logging with intelligent board management con- troller. The possibility to cluster the F75P raises the availability of the computer in a safety-critical application. » Safe operating system: Without being influenced by non-vital applications, the safe applications are executed on two separated redundant control processors. Integrity tests ensuring the safe operation of each safe processor are provided by the safe operating system. This architecture allows the development of safe applica- tions in combination with all market relevant safe operating systems, such as QNX, PikeOS, VxWorks, or Integrity. 2. What are the functional safety principles of the F75P?
- 8. » Separation between safe and non-vital domains: The F75P software distinguishes between the safe and the non-vital domain, allowing the development of non-vital applications separately from safe applications. Non-vital applications cannot influence safe applications because they are executed on a separate processor running a stan- dard Linux operating system. » Safe Application Interface: With PACY, the F75P is complemented by an open, mo- dular interface that gives access to any kind of I/O control. The PACY safety I/O framework also includes a safe communication layer crossing the black channel. » Safe communication: Real-time Ethernet communication via the black channel is applied to transport safe data over untrusted communication. This is defined in accordance with EN 50159 and realized using the FSoE safe communication protocol (Fail Safe over EtherCat). 2. What are the functional safety principles of the F75P?
- 9. 3. How rugged is the F75P?
- 10. » The F75P is designed to meet harsh requirements in industrial automation, railway and public transport, and other mobile environments, guaranteeing reliable operation, longer product life and less maintenance. » It is qualified from a -40 to +85° C operating temperature range, using heat sinks and natural convection cooling instead of fans, based on the low-power processors from the Intel Atom E6xx series. » To prevent from shock and vibration damages, all components are soldered down, connectors are rugged and the cabling is reduced to a minimum. » To prevent from humidity and dust, the board is conformally coated. » The F75P is also fully compliant with the EN 50155 railway norm. 3. How rugged is the F75P?
- 11. 4. What makes the F75P unique for safety-critical applications?
- 12. 1. The F75P is not only developed according to EN 5012x (railway SIL 4) and IEC 61508 (industrial automation SIL 2), but comes already pre-certified with a safety case document and certification documents from TÜV SÜD (German Inspection Agency). Depending on the choice of operating system, the package can be bundled with a SIL 4 pre-certification document for the safe QNX. 4. How are significant cost savings achieved with menRDC?
- 13. 2. Based on open industry standards like the PICMG CompactPCI norm, standard x86 PC technology, standard communication interfaces and protocols, and a standard operating system like Linux the F75P is contrary to all other solutions on the market. Unfortunately, until today customers still face a vendor lock-in situation. Like a monolithic block, every application is tied together with its own hardware and software, and end of life for the electronics means also end of life for the application. The F75P makes the change – it is open, easily exchangeable, and replaceable with solutions from other vendors. 4. How are significant cost savings achieved with menRDC?
- 14. 5. What significant cost savings are achieved with the F75P?
- 15. 1. The SIL 4 pre-certification for the computer board – as the heart of every vital application – reduces time and risk in the development and certification process of the complete computer system. 2. The additional SIL 4 pre-certification for the safe operating system QNX reduces time and risk even further, as no individual safe BSP must be developed and the SIL 4 approval is already valid for the combination of hardware and software. 5. What significant cost savings are achieved with the F75P?
- 16. 3. Being an open platform with standardized interfaces, the life cycle management with a standard component like the F75P will be easier, as it does not affect the functionality of the overall system. 4. Therefore, the life cycle of the application itself is practically unlimited, resulting in significant cost savings for maintenance, re-writing of applications, and re-certification. 5. What significant cost savings are achieved with the F75P?
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