Article: Jim Hogan on ISO 26262 certification and systematic verification

From: [ Jim Hogan of Vista Ventures LLC ]
Subject: ISO 26262 certification and systematic verification

 

Hi, John

 

Now let’s look more closely at the ISO 26262 standard, the certification
process, and how safety critical verification is split into analyzing
systematic faults and random faults.

 

HOW ISO 26262 DOES & DOESN’T WORK…

 

ISO 26262 does not tell you what to do — instead it tells you how to comply
with the regulations. I’ve listed four items below to give you an idea of
how it works.

 

Although safety critical chip design appears to be a different animal when
you look at it across different industries, one way to think of it is:

 

The ISO 26262 standard:

 

1. Rigorously covers every facet of the chip development process.

 

– How the requirements are selected. Example: when you push a
brake pedal with 24.8 kilopascal of pressure, the brake will
engage.
– How the requirements turn into device specifications.
Example: the brake chip spec converts 57.3 milli-newtons
into 24.8 kilopascal of pressure.
– How the specification is implemented. Example: a look
up table for converting operator foot pressure into
newtons — it follows a curve.
– How the implementation is verified. Example: threshold
checking, stabbing tests, impulse tests, recovery time,
and hysteresis.
– Measuring the coverage of the specs. Example: 99% coverage.