NSITEXE Launches NS31A, a RISC‑V 32‑bit CPU Meeting ISO 26262 ASIL D for Automotive Safety

NSITEXE, a Japanese IP developer spun out of Denso Corporation, has unveiled the NS31A—a 32‑bit RISC‑V general‑purpose CPU engineered to meet ISO 26262 ASIL D for automotive safety.

Designed for versatile embedded control—from vehicles to factory automation—the NS31A incorporates a single‑issue, in‑order, four‑stage pipeline based on the RV32IMAF RISC‑V ISA. It delivers ISO 26262 ASIL D compliance and includes a privileged mode to support the AUTOSAR stack.

The NS31A harnesses NSITEXE’s DR1000C data‑flow core, which recently earned ISO 26262 ASIL D readiness from SGS‑TÜV. The DR1000C’s parallel architecture excels at high‑load arithmetic—model predictive control, AI inference, and sensor data—making it ideal for safety‑critical automotive MCUs. With up to 16 hardware threads leveraging a vector processor, the core delivers exceptional performance, and its versatility extends to vehicle control, factory automation, radar, and other sensor‑rich applications.

Integrated safety mechanisms—memory ECC, dual‑core lockstep, bus‑protocol violation detection, and an error‑management unit that injects and reports faults—allow the DR1000C to satisfy ASIL D without external safety add‑ons.

The vector processing core supports two safety modes—hardware checker and software test. Depending on performance goals and the desired ASIL, developers may select the lockstep‑based hardware checker for ASIL D random fault detection, or await the forthcoming software test libraries that satisfy ASIL C, thereby unlocking full computational capability.

The ASIL D‑compliant DR1000C‑SDK offers precise thread control, memory protection, and temporal safeguards. Leveraging these, along with an ISO 26262‑aligned tool chain, developers can concentrate on application logic, shortening time‑to‑market. The SDK’s thread manager delivers priority scheduling, real‑time task monitoring, and comprehensive status reporting.

Accompanying the CPU is the NS31A‑HSK, a hardware safety kit that delivers FMEDA, a safety manual, safety‑case reports, and all ISO 26262 documentation, dramatically accelerating functional‑safety analysis and certification.

Embedded Workbench Development Toolchain

NS31A comes with a suite of open‑source development tools. For safety‑critical work, IAR Systems’ Embedded Workbench for RISC‑V—certified for ISO 26262 and related standards—offers out‑of‑the‑box support. The partnership between NSITEXE and IAR ensures the tool is distributed via NeXtream, a leading EDA and semiconductor IP distributor.

“Our collaboration with NSITEXE brings our joint strong technology and services further into the RISC‑V community with extended possibilities for functional safety development. IAR Systems’ functional safety offering provides the widest standards coverage in the industry, and together with NSITEXE, we are now enabling companies to speed up the path of using RISC‑V in applications where ensured safety is critical for success.” – Stefan Skarin, CEO, IAR Systems

“Our development efforts have been focused on three pillars – versatility, efficiency, and functional safety – with massive future trends in mind. The NS31A implements these as a RISC‑V 32‑bit general‑purpose CPU with high functional safety for users who want to control embedded systems easily, reasonably, and safely. The NS31A offers reliability not just for automotive applications but also for many embedded systems that require high levels of safety in fields such as factory automation and medical care.” – Hideki Sugimoto, CTO, NSITEXE

“Building on this effort for high functional safety as well as on our innovative processor technology, we support smart mobility and MaaS [mobility‑as‑a‑service], thus contributing to changing the world in ways that enrich people’s lives.” – Sugimoto

NSITEXE is an IP vendor established in 2017 as a spinout of Denso Corporation, specializing in the development of advanced processors. The company develops RISC‑V based processor IPs that support functional safety.