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Fault-tolerant processor

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CIOL Bureau
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Features: ARM has announced at the Fall Processor Forum in San Jose,

California, the new ARM Cortex-R4F processor to reduce the cost and design-time

of future automotive electronic technology.






The Cortex-R4F processor will enable ARM Partners to meet the stringent
error-free safety standards and high performance requirements of automotive

applications including next-generation Anti-lock Braking (ABS) and vehicle

stability systems, according to an ARM statement.






The features of the Cortex-R4F processor specialized for the automotive market
include support for Error-Correcting Code (ECC) memory, the extension of error

detection into the interconnect and a synthesis-optional Floating-Point Unit (FPU).






“Vehicle OEMs need to continually innovate in order to meet tightening
emissions and safety legislation, while adapting to changing consumer

expectations,” said Chris Webber, vice president, Automotive Practice,

Strategy Analytics.






“The ARM announcement of the Cortex-R4F processor is extremely timely as
designers of next-generation automotive control systems look for highly robust

floating-point processor solutions that are needed for the innately intelligent

backbone which will be part of even the most affordable car.”






The Cortex-R4F processor builds upon the advanced features of the Cortex-R4
processor. These features include configurability during synthesis to optimize

the processor for different applications through a high-resolution memory

protection unit, caches, tightly-coupled memory, DMA and debug facilities. This

configurability is provided without compromising the underlying ARM instruction

set compatibility, maximizing the reuse of existing software investments by

application developers and third parties.






In addition, the Cortex-R4F processor brings a strong focus on safety with high
resolution memory protection facilities to allow tight control over independent

software tasks. This is critical to applications based on the OSEK standard for

an open-ended architecture, the JasPar Automotive software platform

architecture, and the AutoSAR runtime environment. ARM is a premium member of

AutoSAR, which has wide industry support with members such as BMW, Bosch,

Continental, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM, Siemens and VW. ARM is also a member of

JasPar, whose board members include Toyota, Nissan and Honda.






The ARM Cortex-R4F processor is available for licensing now, along with the
majority of the supporting technology. The Instruction Set Simulator and

RealView Development Suite tools environment for the Cortex-R4F processor are

available today to lead and existing licensees, and for general release on

request.






The complementary technologies for implementing full SoC solutions such as the
AMBA 3 AXI Interconnect (PL301), Configurable Dynamic Memory Controller (PL340),

Static Memory Controller Family (PL350) and L2 Cache (L220) are all available

now.















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