White Papers

Technical perspectives from Root Cause Technologies on Functional Safety, Cybersecurity, Embedded Systems, Software Engineering, and Safety-Critical Architectures.

Functional Safety

A Leadership Guideline for Semiconductor Executives: Beyond Commercial Decisions in Functional Safety

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: STRATEGIC INTEGRATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF FUNCTIONAL SAFETY FOR C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES IN SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANIES. This paper is addressed directly to C-level executives because only those at the highest levels of leadership possess the authority and influence necessary to drive true functional safety transformation across a semiconductor organization.

April 2026

Functional Safety

Category 3 in ISO 13849-1: Behaviour vs. Hardware Fault Tolerance

WHAT MANY ENGINEERS GET WRONG ABOUT FUNCTIONAL SAFETY In functional safety discussions, Category 3 (CAT3) is often oversimplified—or worse, misunderstood. A common assumption is that CAT3 directly implies a specific hardware architecture or Hardware Fault Tolerance (HFT) level. In reality, this interpretation can lead to incorrect design decisions and flawed safety assessments. This paper revisits the fundamental intent of ISO 13849-1 and clarifies a key principle.

April 2026