Finally had time to have a look.
On the front of the brochure is the claim "The Wolrd's First DeviceNet Safety Controller With Network Capabilities". Also, "Complies with the Highest Safety Standards in the World".
It appears that the system is based around EN 954-1 Safety Category 4 and IEC 61508 SIL 3. This is top level protection and where most good safety relays sit.
There is a Safety Network Controller with 16 safety inputs and 8 safety outputs. There are also Safety I/O terminals to hook into the network. The whole thing can then be hooked up to an existing Device Net network with the master PLC monitoring the safety network only - no control. Fair enough! The level of monitoring includes all the maintenance functions offered in the latest Device Net I/O systems.
There is a set of software required to set up the sfatey network. Programming is by pre-determined function blocks. One would assume that they are probably protected as they have probably had to go through a series of testing for functionality.
The mentioned testing authorities are TUV Rheinland and UL. Various standards and parts of standards are mentioned.
Interestingly enough, the Safety Network Controller has a USB port (USB1.1). The other method of communications to set up the controller is an interface card for your laptop. Cannot program the Safety Controller in a normal PLC as we do with normal D/Net I/O. I guess that makes sense as the unit is, and must be, a stand alone controller.
Will have to get the manual (Z905) and investigate further. The leaflet document number is Z907-E1-01 if anyone is interested.
There is no mention of scan and network communications times in the leaflet. There may be more in the manual.