IEC61508 Insights

What is IEC61508?

IEC 61508 is an international standard for 'Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic (E/E/PE) safety-related systems.' It provides a framework for designing, implementing, and managing safety-related systems across various industries. It is commonly used to ensure that safety functions within these systems operate correctly and reliably to reduce risks to an acceptable level. The standard defines Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) ranging from 1 to 4, with SIL 4 representing the highest level of safety integrity. IEC 61508 is a foundational standard that other industry-specific functional safety standards are often derived from, such as IEC 61513 (nuclear), IEC 61511 (process industry), IEC 62061 (machinery).

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What other technologies are related to IEC61508?

IEC61508 Competitor Technologies

ISO13849

ISO 13849 provides safety requirements for safety-related parts of control systems in machinery. It competes with IEC 61508 in the machinery domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 63% (146) of relevant job posts

ISO26262

ISO 26262 is the automotive functional safety standard, which is a competitor to IEC 61508 in the automotive domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 7% (588) of relevant job posts

EN50129

EN 50129 is the railway safety standard, which is an alternative to IEC 61508 in the railway domain, making it a competitor.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 13% (60) of relevant job posts

DO178

DO-178 (now DO-178C) is the civil aviation standard for software, making it a competitor to IEC 61508 in the aerospace domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 8% (76) of relevant job posts

DO254

DO-254 is the civil aviation standard for hardware, making it a competitor to IEC 61508 in the aerospace domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 8% (57) of relevant job posts

EN50128

EN 50128 is the railway software safety standard, a competitor to IEC 61508 in the railway domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 8% (52) of relevant job posts

DO-178C

DO-178C is the civil aviation standard for software, making it a competitor to IEC 61508 in the aerospace domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 3% (55) of relevant job posts

ISO 26262

ISO 26262 is the automotive functional safety standard, which is a competitor to IEC 61508 in the automotive domain.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 1% (85) of relevant job posts

IEC61508 Complementary Technologies

IEC61511

IEC 61511 is the application standard for IEC 61508 for the process industry, so it is complementary.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 38% (98) of relevant job posts

EN50126

EN 50126 specifies RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety) requirements for railway applications, complementary to EN50129 and thus to IEC 61508.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 11% (62) of relevant job posts

FMEDA

FMEDA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis) is a technique used to analyze failure rates and is complementary to IEC 61508 for safety analysis.

mentioned alongside IEC61508 in 5% (66) of relevant job posts