Nxp USA, Inc.

Harald Luepken

Vladimir Litovtchenko

Michael Rohleder

Joachim Fader

Markus Regner

Thomas Koch

A microcontroller unit having a functional state, a reset state, and one or more assertable fault sources is described. Each fault source has its own fault source assertion count and its own fault source assertion limit; the MCU is arranged to perform the following sequence of operations in a cyclic manner: if one or more of the fault sources are asserted, pass from the functional state to the reset state and increase the respective fault source assertion counts by one increment; if one or more of the fault source assertion counts exceeds the respective fault source assertion limit, disable the respective fault source; and pass from the reset state to the functional state. A method of operating an MCU is also disclosed.

Microcontroller unit and method of operating a microcontroller unit

A processing apparatus, comprising at least a first processing unit and a second processing unit, is proposed. The first processing unit comprises a set of first stateful elements, the second processing unit comprises a set of second stateful elements. A set of synchronization data lines may connect the first stateful elements to the second stateful elements in a pairwise manner. A control unit may control the first processing unit, the second processing unit and the synchronization data lines so as to copy the states of the first stateful elements in parallel via the synchronization data lines to the second stateful elements in response to a synchronization request. A method of synchronizing the processing units is also proposed.

Processing apparatus and method of synchronizing a first processing unit and a second processing unit

A storage element with monitoring circuit, comprising a previous state information storage element configured to record a previous state of a monitored state information storage element, a state change indication unit having a clock input terminal coupled to the clock signal input interface, a state change indication unit being configured to generate a state change indication signal indicative of whether the monitored state information storage element shall have performed a state change by observing the data at a data input interface and a data output terminal, and a state change confirmation unit configured to generate a storage fault indicator by observing the data output terminal of the monitored state information storage element and the data output of the previous state information storage element and checking whether the result of this observation is in line with the state change indicator.

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Zorneding, Germany

Harald Luepken