ISO/DIS 26262 in the Context of Electric and Electronic Architecture Modeling

The draft international standard under development ISO 26262 describes a safety lifecycle for road vehicles and thereby influences all parts of development, production, operation and decommissioning. All systems affected by the standard, like anti-trap protection or advanced driver assistance systems, contain hierarchical electric and electronic parts. After publishing the final version, they all should be designed, assessed and documented to the demands of ISO 26262. The intercommunication structure of the distributed automotive control system, consisting of electronic control units (ECU), sensors and actuators, and functions computed by this control system, are specified by the electric and electronic architecture (EEA). In the context of the ISO 26262, the EEA contributes to the intercommunication of distributed, safety related functions plus the determination of architectures. This article discusses the impact of the standard on the EEA development and the handling of safety requirements demanded by ISO 26262 during early development phases.