| ARM architectures | |
| Designer: | ARM Holdings |
| 32-bit architectures (Cortex) | |
| Version: | ARMv8-R, ARMv7-A, ARMv7-R, ARMv7E-M, ARMv7-M, ARMv6-M |
| Encoding: | 32-bit except Thumb2 extensions use mixed 16- and 32-bit instructions. |
| Endianness: | Bi (Little as default) |
| Extensions: | Thumb-2 (mandatory since ARMv7), NEON, Jazelle, FPv4-SP |
| Gpr: | 16 x 32-bit integer registers including PC and SP |
| Fpr: | Up to 32 × 64-bit registers,[1] SIMD/floating-point (optional) |
Hercules is a line of ARM architecture-based microcontrollers from Texas Instruments built around one or more ARM Cortex cores. This "Hercules safety microcontroller platform" includes a series of microcontrollers specifically targeted for Functional Safety applications, through such hardware-base fault correction/detection features as dual cores that can run in lock-step, full path ECC, automated self testing of memory and logic, peripheral redundancy, and monitor/checker cores.
This line includes the TMS470M, TMS570 and RM4 families. These families were "designed specifically for IEC 61508 and ISO 26262 safety critical applications".[2] However, they differ significantly in the degree of support for these safety standards:[3]
In particular, TMS570 support for ASIL D is accomplished through dual lock-step cores.