The software offering from Green Hills Software will include the safety-certified µ-velOSity real-time operating system (RTOS), the ASIL-certified MULTI development environment with advanced system-level debugging and analysis tools and C/C++ Optimising Compilers, along with the Green Hills Probe for JTAG and trace target connections.
The combined hardware and software platform is designed for SoC companies and end-customers to create 32/64-bit RISC-V-based SoCs targeting critical functions requiring ISO 26262 ASIL B to ASIL D, making the combined platform suitable for vehicle electronics requiring compact and cost-sensitive SoCs that are still capable of ASIL certification.
Andes Technology is the first RISC-V processor IP vendor to receive ASIL D process certification for both hardware (ISO 26262-5) and software (ISO 26262-6) and the company has said that it is committed to supporting automobile professionals in developing safety-related product lines.
The functional safety-enabled solution Andes Technology and Green Hills Software are offering is expected to be available for general licensing by the second half of 2022.
“AndesCore RISC-V processor IP with safety enhancement has already been adopted by several early customers due to its unique and competitive value,” said Dr. Charlie Su, Andes Technology President and CTO. “The partnership with Green Hills Software enables us to further offer comprehensive and robust development support for our customers. We welcome the benefits that Green Hills Software’s mature functional safety solutions bring to the RISC-V community to speed up the adoption of RISC-V safety-related applications.”
“We are pleased to expand our production-ready safety solutions support to include the latest advanced safety-certified RISC-V AndesCore IP from technology leader, Andes Technology,” said Dan Mender, Vice President, Business Development, Green Hills Software. “And with this combined hardware-software solution, SoC providers utilising the AndesCore 25-Series family can immediately start developing their next generation vehicle ECUs with the highest performing, lowest power offerings, while reducing their customers’ time to market and development costs by offering integrated and optimized production-proven solutions.”
The combined hardware and software platform from Andes Technology and Green Hills Software features the following:
- The AndesCore 25-Series RISC-V Family: Andes Technology’s AndesCore 25-Series is a family of 32/64-bit CPU IP cores based on AndesStar V5 architecture incorporating RISC-V technology. Its 5-stage pipeline is optimised for high operating frequency and high performance, yet with a small gate count. The series supports optional single- and double-precision floating point instructions. It also offers branch prediction for efficient branch execution, instruction and data caches, local memories for low-latency accesses, and ECC for L1 memory soft error protection. Multiple power management settings enable efficient energy consumption. Andes Technology’s N25F-SE, a member of the 25-Series family, is being certified at ASIL-B in the final stage.
- The µ-velOSity RTOS: Green Hills Software’s µ-velOSity RTOS is a companion for the AndesCore 25-Series processors because of its small footprint, quick boot times, and optional support for multiple cores and ASIL certification. µ-velOSity is also a perfect complement to the traditional use of AUTOSAR Classic in that it can cover a different class of applications, memory footprint, performance, and features.
- The MULTI IDE: Used by developers for over three decades, Green Hills Software’s MULTI IDE is an integrated development environment used to create, debug, and optimise code for embedded processors. Developers can easily see and fix difficult bugs, pinpoint performance bottlenecks, and prevent future problems. MULTI provides whole-toolchain support for custom RISC-V instructions and delivers ISO 26262 ASIL-certified C/C++ compilers and run time libraries.
- The Green Hills Probe: The probe provides JTAG and high-speed trace connections to targets for multicore hardware bring-up, low-level debugging, and trace-powered analysis tools.
- Guidance and Training: Through design guidance and training, Green Hills Software’s services teams help customers achieve their own tailored levels of safety, security, and performance, with the highest developer productivity.
