EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

Switching between battery-cells

With the battery management IC ATA6870 Atmel introduces a solution which enables active cell balancing to increase capacity and lifetime of Li-Ion batteries in electrical and hybrid electrical cars.

Video on the road

APIX short for Automotive Pixel Link, connects Cameras to Displays. This Gigabit connection from Inova Semiconductors is an advancement of Inova’s remote display connection Gigastar for automotive applications. Together with Xilinx , the company has developed an APIX IP core for the Spartan-6 XA FPGAs.

Decorated Power

Power loss actually happens in hardware, but software has a big impact on its magnitude. Optimizing software with respect to power consumption can make a huge difference in systemwide losses. A new tool from Hitex Development Tools takes care of that issue and made an impression on the award committee of embedded world 2010.

Easy standards

TÜV Süd has recently certified the tools Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder, PolySpace Client for C/C++, and PolySpace Server for C/C++ from The Mathworks. The German certification authority certifies that the tools are suitable for developing safety-related software that conforms to IEC 61508, ISO 26262, or derivative standards.

FlexRay test tool stripped to the bone

Goepel Electronic recently introduced a new FlexRay test tool. basicFlexScope 3095 is a bus analysis and validation tool for FlexRay networks that integrates four functions; bus analyser, bus simulator, oscilloscope trigger and fault simulator.

Software on wheels

Today's cars are computers on wheels, each one containing up to 80 embedded computer systems and control units as well as around a gigabyte of software to control the car's components and technical extras, from brake assist systems and CD players to satellite navigation systems. Safety-critical software everywhere and Fraunhofer ISST has developed solutions to help getting a grip on it.

4WD on speed

What if car wheels were running completely individually? It's hard to believe that the car could follow a straight course, but believe it or not: This is already happening, and the car behaves like a sports car. A group of extremely motivated young engineers and scientists from Fortiss at the Munich Technical University developed an experimental platform for electro-mobility.

“MOST150 Does It”

It is quite common that even interesting conferences or shows have strikingly dumb slogans. If dullness of the motto is a measure for quality, MOST Cooperation’s “MOST Forum”, which will be held on March 23th, 2010 in Frankfurt, you wouldn’t want to miss it. Themed "MOST150 Does It", the demonstrations at the conference and exhibition will visualize the five major fields of in-car use cases.

Steering Power

A new torque sensor which Bosch calles TSS (torque sensor steering) has been developed specifically for electric power steering. It measures the steering force exerted by the driver. Based on the measured values, an electronic control unit determines how much steering support the electric servo motor needs to deliver – adapted to the condition of the road surface and vehicle speed.

Tootsie carbon footprint

When driving a car, do you still use a steering wheel? Or maybe a cruise control? Sorry, but you are quite a back number. Le dernier cri is a map-enhanced driver assistance system, at least according to dSpace and Navteq. Those two companies created a development platform for this type of system. Such futuristic tools are not only supposed to aid the driver but could also reduce CO2-emissions.