Cadence Design : Delivers Industry’s First Comprehensive TCL1 Documentation to Support Automotive ISO 26262 Standard

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) today announced that it has delivered the industry's first comprehensive Tool Confidence Level 1 (TCL1) documentation that is compliant with the automotive ISO 26262 standard. To be deemed compliant, TÜV SÜD, an internationally accredited independent testing and conformity assessment company, completed an evaluation and confirmed the TCL1 predetermination for the Cadence analog/mixed-signal tool chain and digital front-end design and verification flows. In addition, an evaluation of the Cadence digital implementation and signoff flow is expected to be completed by the end of year. Once complete, more than 30 Cadence EDA tools will contribute to an ISO 26262 compliant development lifecycle, offering the broadest tool support for the automotive industry.

The Cadence Automotive Functional Safety Kits, which include the TÜV SÜD technical reports, are fully accessible to all Cadence users at www.cadence.com/go/iso26262auto.

The TÜV SÜD evaluation satisfies documentation requirements the component supplier has to provide for their tools and flow. For the component supplier to achieve an ASIL certification, development tools must be formally assessed according to the ISO 26262 standard. The Cadence approach reduces the effort required to evaluate tool use cases within each of the supplier's automotive design projects and avoids the costly efforts of tool qualification activities, which reduces complexity and saves time and money.

'Proven safety compliance along with a complete design and verification tool flow is a requirement for Infineon so that we can deliver our AURIX microcontroller designs to the market on time and ensure that they meet the safety standards the automotive market demands,' said Dr. Joerg Schepers, senior director, Microcontrollers Powertrain at Infineon Technologies AG. 'Cadence's work with TÜV SÜD provides us with added confidence because its software tools have been properly assessed to support the ISO 26262 standard.'

TCL1 provides a high level of confidence that tools are safe to use, and automotive OEMs as well as tier 1 and tier 2 component suppliers require technology vendors to meet these stringent safety requirements for ASIL A through ASIL D projects. Cadence Automotive Functional Safety Kits provide flow-based solutions supported by modularized documentation, allowing customers to make adaptations for their specific tool environments and, thus, easing the process of submitting documentation to the auditor. The three flows are as follows:

• Digital front-end design and verification flow: This flow goes from specification to RTL design, functional verification and functional safety. It includes well-known tools such as the Incisive Enterprise Simulator, Palladium Z1 enterprise emulation platform, Protium rapid prototyping platform, Incisive vManager solution, JasperGold applications, Genus Synthesis Solution and Conformal Equivalence Checker.
• Analog/mixed-signal design, implementation and verification flow: This flow brings transistor-level designs from creation and simulation through physical implementation and verification using the Cadence Virtuoso suite and the Spectre circuit simulation platform. The Cadence Virtuoso ADE Verifier provides design engineers with an integrated means to validate the safety specifications against individual circuit specifications for design confidence.
• Digital implementation and signoff flow: This flow is currently undergoing the evaluation process. It covers RTL-to-GDSII implementation and signoff and includes the Cadence Innovus Implementation System and the Modus Test Solution for the implementation and signoff of automotive designs.

'As a trusted authority for ISO 26262 product, process and tool certifications that provides functional safety services for automotive companies worldwide, we recognize that OEMs and suppliers require software tools they can rely on for the development of safety-critical products without spending an extensive amount of time on tool qualification,' said Alfred Beer, head of the automotive functional safety department at TÜV SÜD. 'By working with Cadence, we've determined that Cadence has prepared a valuable documentation set for the process of TCL predetermination that will support their customers in applying the Cadence tool chains safely in their ASIL A through ASIL D projects.'

'Through our close collaboration with TÜV SÜD, our automotive customers can create and verify automotive designs knowing that our tool flows have achieved compliance,' said Dr. Anirudh Devgan, senior vice president and general manager of the Digital & Signoff Group and the System & Verification Group at Cadence. 'Also, because the Cadence flows have been evaluated by TÜV SÜD, our customers don't need to spend extra time and money on the evaluation phase.'