openSAFETY certified for SIL3

The openSAFETY protocol specification and protocol stack have been certified for use in SIL3 systems by the German testing authorities TÜV Süd and TÜV Rheinland. Due to the safety protocol's low residual error probability, users can implement openSAFETY-based projects requiring SIL4 with suitable additional measures.

What does SIL stand for?

According to the IEC/EN 61508 standard, the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) is a classification of the probability of a dangerous system failure. It includes the categories SIL1 through SIL4, with the probability of failure decreasing as the number increases.

A SIL test determines a system's freedom from errors with regard to design, software, component stress (systematic integrity) and statistic properties. The key statistic values are the following: the “Probability of Failure on Demand” (PFD) is the average probability of a requested safety function not being executed. It describes the system's behavior under low requirements. The “Probability of Failure per Hour” (PFH) provides information about the system's behavior when faced with high, continuous requirements.

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