Improving integrity of embedded computers in control

This paper gives an overview of a holistic project dealing with the consistent design of embedded control systems falling into the first level of safety integrity requirements (SIL l) (IEC, 1998). It shows how existing methods can be adapted and reasonably employed, whenever possible, without having to resort to new innovations. Firstly, the hardware issues are dealt with and extensively elaborated, particularly the peripheral interfaces with integrated processing capabilities. Secondly, the proven correct real-time operating system executing on its own dedicated processor is briefly addressed, and finally, programming issues including descriptions of the specific programming language, time bounded handling of exceptions, and how to deal with temporal overload