A semiconductor circuit for an electronic control device for a system in a motor vehicle, wherein the system is not mechanically intrinsically safe, includes a functional computer (FR), at least one monitoring unit (MU) and a monitoring computer that are each physically independent of each other. A full or a restricted function of the semiconductor circuit is ensured by the functional computer (FR) in the event of a failure of the monitoring computer (UR) and vice versa. The semiconductor circuit is monitored according to a monitoring method.