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Associate
May 5, 2025
Solved

SIL 2 micrcontroller requirement

  • May 5, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 1122 views

Hi, 

We are working on railway projects where we are looking for SIL 2 microcontroller. 

As per our analysis we found out that we need to integrate the X-CUBE-STL package to make it to SIL 2compliance. And we have found out that it should have supported MCU's. As per our analysis the STM32H5 and STM32H7 series supports X-CUBE-STIL package. 

So, we wanted to know are the safety certified libraries available in this package to make it as SIL 2 compliance. Also, can you suggest if there are any SIL 2 certified microcontrollers available. 

Regards, 
Rajath

Best answer by Peter BENSCH

SIL2 safety functions can be implemented with X-CUBE-STL on all listed devices; the necessary libraries are included in X-CUBE-STL. Technical support for this is handled not via this public community, but by the office with which you conclude the NDA.

Regards
/Peter

4 replies

Peter BENSCH
Technical Moderator
May 5, 2025

Welcome @rajath, to the community!

Yes, certified libraries are included in the software package.

To access the software, however, you must first conclude an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) via your local distributor or local office of STMicroelectronics.

Good luck!
/Peter

rajathAuthor
Associate
May 7, 2025

Hi @Peter BENSCH

Thank you for the quick response. May I know this software is free of cost or do we need to purchase the license to access this software?

Also, could you please confirm STM32H5 series supports X-CUBE-STL, or could you please suggest any other microcontroller which supports SIL 2 and have safety certified libraries.


Regards, 
Rajath 

Peter BENSCH
Technical Moderator
May 7, 2025

If you have agreed an NDA, the software package X-CUBE-STL can be used free of charge and without a licence.

STM32H5 of course also supports the STM32H5, details and further microcontroller families can be found in the X-CUBE-STL safety manuals (don't forget to open the complete list of documents by clicking 'Load More' several times or 'Expand all categories'.

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Ozone
Principal
May 7, 2025

Dealing with projects requiring SIL-2, I suggest a Cortex R device. Preferably a dual-core lockstep configuration.

And from experience, I would highly recommend to consider an off-the-shelf ECU fulfilling this requirements.

Pavel A.
Super User
May 7, 2025
Ozone
Principal
May 7, 2025

One that note, not recommending one vendor or another ...

There are significant follow-up choices to make regarding a controller for a SIL-2 project.

One is the choice of a realtime OS - excluding an attempted bare-metal implementation (most likely to become a development and/or maintainance nightmare).
While there are free options (like FreeRTOS), they will imply higher costs downstream, because basically the whole project software must pass the certification.
Some pre-certified professional options (e.g. SafeRTOS) avoid a lot of this hassle, but come at relatively high initial costs.

And lastly, all those certifications (of either option) are bound to a toolchain. A replacement of this toolchain or even a major update will require a renewed certification process. With commercial safe RTOS variants one is usually bound to the vendor's choice, as RTOS and toolchain are pre-certified in tandem.

LCE
Principal II
June 6, 2025

I have worked for a company with SIL products - my job was luckily in a "pre-development" department where we could simply play with and test new controllers / sensors.

But the product development department had as many SIL-experts as development engineers, alone the testing regimen...

So, judging by your questions I would advise to find some experts - it's much more than choosing the right controller and SW package.

Ozone
Principal
June 10, 2025

> So, judging by your questions I would advise to find some experts - it's much more than choosing the right controller and SW package.

I would definitely second that, dealing with software for SIL-2 systems as well.