VLSI communication interface for time-triggered real-time systems

This paper describes the design of a VLSI communication controller for the time-triggered protocol (TTP/C) as the result of a microelectronics development project done at Carinthia Tech Institute in cooperation with industrial partners. TTP/C is an emerging communication protocol for fault-tolerant real-time systems. Typical applications are safety-critical digital control systems such as drive-by-wire and fly-by-wire. We applied a VHDL-based design flow to implement digital standard cell logic, RAMs, flash memory and analog cells into a 27 mm² chip using 0.35 μ CMOS technology. First fully-tested production samples are available and proved the design to be first time right. At this year’s SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) World Congress in Detroit, from more than 5000 innovative products presented, the TTP controller IC was nominated as ‘Top Product of the Year’.