Time-controlled secure communication

A system-on-chip comprising at least one of a programmable computer and a Field Programmable Gate Array for carrying out a method comprising:

• transferring messages via a time-controlled communication system between a plurality of IP cores including at least one privileged IP core and at least one unprivileged IP core, with each IP core having an information-processing subsystem and a network controller, with each network controller having at least two interfaces, an interface for the communication system and a second interface for the information-processing subsystem;
• transmitting a privileged message including transmission parameters from the at least one privileged IP core to the at least one unprivileged IP core, the transmission parameters including a periodically recurring transmission time of a time-controlled message and a maximum transmission duration after each transmission time, that are set
• exclusively by the at least one privileged IP core to control an network controller of the at least one unprivileged core;
• autonomously transmitting from each network controller a message exactly at the periodically recurring transmission time;
• and interrupting the transmission process at a time no later than after the assigned maximum transmission duration has elapsed.

A system-on-chip comprising:

• at least one of a programmable computer and a Field Programmable Gate Array, on which are connected a plurality of IP cores including at least one privileged IP core and at least one unprivileged IP core via a time-controlled communication system, each IP core having an information processing subsystem and a network controller for interfacing with the communication system and the information-processing subsystem,
• wherein the privileged IP core transmits a privileged message including transmission parameters to the at least one unprivileged IP core, the transmission parameters being exclusively set by the privileged IP core for controlling the network controller of the at least one unprivileged IP core, and
• wherein the time-controlled communication system and the at least one privileged IP core and the at least one unprivileged IP core belong to different clock domains and that clock domain crossing respectively within one network controller assigned to a respective one of the at least one privileged IP core and the at least one unprivileged IP core is carried out such that the information-processing subsystem of the at least one privileged IP core and the at least one unprivileged IP core accesses between the message transfer by the communication system to the message buffers present in the network controller in a reading or writing manner within the a priori known stability intervals.