MCAN implements a timestamp for received and transmitted messages. An external timestamp counter is required for CAN FD messages. The timestamp counter provided by MCAN is equipped with a prescaler for tradeoff between resolution and wraparound period. The timestamp counter value is stored in the message buffer for each transmitted or received message. Software can perform sanity checks on messages to determine if the messages have been sent in the order expected by the system as a diagnostic. For example, multiple messages with the same timestamp (taking into consideration the wraparound time) are not expected as the CAN protocol can carry one message at a time. End-to-end safing that includes numbering the messages can be used to indicate linear incrementing timestamps that software can verify.