Apparatus and Method for the Protection and for the Non-Destructive Testing of Safety-Relevant Registers

• US 20130061094A1
• Filed: 09/04/2012
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Busch, Holger
• Granted Patent: US 8,914,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2215 to test error correction or detection circuits

Abstract

The present invention enables a safety management of safety measures as well as the non-destructive testing of safety-relevant registers which are required for the configuration of a system, wherein the test method according to the invention can be carried out during each operating phase of a system to be tested.

Claims

1. A method for the testing of safety registers of an electronic control system which comprises a number of modules and is configured to trigger a safety function under given conditions, comprising:

associating a test controller with each of the number of modules, respectively; and

detecting an occurrence of an error in one of the safety registers in each operating phase of the control system by means of the associated test controllers that are provided in each module which comprises such safety registers.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising changing a data content of a safety register at least once to simulate conditions for a triggering of a safety function of the control system in order to check whether the safety function of the control system is triggered according to the given conditions.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing an original value of a safety register in one or several redundant or duplicated safety registers prior to beginning of the test; and

changing a data content of a redundant or duplicated safety register at least once to simulate conditions for the triggering of a safety function of the control system in order to check whether the safety function of the control system is triggered according to the given conditions.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising writing back a data content is written back from the redundant or duplicated register to the tested safety register after the test in order to restore the original data content of the tested safety register.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

performing a test by means of a read function from two redundant or duplicated safety registers; and

then sending back a corrected majority read value to the test controller of the respective module in order to restore the original data content of the tested safety register with correction protection.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a read value of the safety register to be tested is assigned to an original signal that represents the data content of the respective safety register before the test.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, in safety registers to be tested, storing test data in encapsulated assignments in order to invert the original values in a redundant or duplicated safety register and thereby trigger predefined safety functions.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising detecting an error in one of the tested safety registers by means of an alarm function when there are any differences between the data contents of the tested safety register and its redundant or duplicated register and/or when these do not correspond to a current test state.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing write functions that, based on the test procedure, assign data values with or without inversion to the safety register to be tested and to a redundant or duplicated register associated therewith so that at certain points in time all bits of the safety register to be tested and of its associated redundant or duplicated register are either identical or different.

10. An apparatus for the testing of safety registers triggering a safety function under given conditions in an electronic control system, comprising:

a number of modules; and

at least one test controller associated with each module that comprises such safety registers, wherein each test controller is configured to detect an occurrence of an error in one of the safety registers in each operating phase of the control system.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein at least one module comprises a multiple redundancy of the safety register to be tested by a corresponding number of redundant or duplicated registers therein with or without negation.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein in the module employing a redundant safety register, the safety register to be tested and the associated redundant or duplicated register are of the same type so that the same predefined functions and methods can be applied thereto.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the test controllers in each module are configured to generate and supply test data that are input simultaneously into safety registers to be tested.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a test control logic configured to compare a generated or incoming indication for a triggering of a safety function with an expected indication for a triggering of a safety function, and further configured to generate global test alarm and alarm signals that are forwarded to a safety management unit.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the safety registers are configured as configuration or universal registers of relevant system components, critical internal registers, finite state machines and/or counters.