ARM enables autonomous vehicles with its most advanced safety processor

ARM has launched an all-new safety processor called the ARM Cortex-R52 that comes with advanced safety features. The same has been built from the ground up for use in autonomous vehicles and for medical and industrial robots.

The ARM Cortex-R52 core focus is safety and with that comes compliance for ISO 26262 ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3, the most stringent safety standards in the automotive and industrial markets. It is a real-time processor that should enable applications as critical as surgical automation and even for safety management in automotive powertrain control.

STMicroelectronics is the first ARM partner to announce it has licensed the high performance processor to enable it to create highly integrated SoCs for the automotive market.

“The Cortex-R52 is the first processor built on the ARMv8-R architecture and it was designed from the ground up to address functional safety,” said James McNiven, general manager for CPU and media processing groups, ARM. “We are helping partners to meet particular market opportunities, especially in fully autonomous vehicles and robotics systems where specific functionality is required for safety-critical tasks. By documenting the strict development process, fault modelling and supporting software isolation, ARM is enabling a faster route to market for partners addressing these applications.”

Offering hardware-enforced separation of software tasks, the Cortex-R52 ensures safety-critical code is fully isolated. With the code now isolated, the hardware can now be managed by a software hypervisor. By enabling the precise and robust separation of software, the Cortex-R52 decreases the amount of code that must be safety-certified, so speeding up development as software integration, maintenance and validation is easier.

“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,” said Fabio Marchiò, Automotive & Discrete Group Vice President and

DENSO, a leading global supplier of advanced automotive technology, systems and components is supporting the launch.