EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

Threewise triple MCU

In modern automotive systems, various bus systems, rigid safety demands and the need for high performance at low power have to be balanced. While there are many specialized automotive chips like microcontrollers and SoCs around, this  is an area where the general trend towards higher integration finally makes sense.

Developing for ISO 26262

Designing ISO 26262 compliant ECUs can be very challenging, especially since current developments in automotive technology render established design patterns useless. Specialized tools are supposed to simplify and automate the functional safety compliance process.

Building a standard

It's a good thing when an official industry standard is constantly being developed and thus filled with life. However, when the standard evolves fast, there's always the problem that some implementers remain at an older version. This can lead to fragmentation, and the »standard« isn't a standard anymore.

Safer ECUs

The ISO 26262 functional safety standard for road vehicles poses various problems for component manufacturers as well as for system integrators. Luckily, not all control units in a car are that safety critical, but the ones that need to comply require extensive checking and testing during all stages of product development.

Automotive development package

With an upgrade for its simulation and prototyping tools, dSpace promises new features for development and testing engineers.

Model truck

Inefficient driving techniques can increase carbon emissions and raise fuel consumption by as much as 10%. For a company with 20 trucks, each driven 120,000 kilometres a year, this translates to 200 tons

European IESF 2010 Conference: be there or be square

According to Mentor Graphics, its upcoming European IESF 2010 Conference which will be held on December 2nd, 2010 in Frankfurt, is one of the the world’s leading events for design engineers, engineering management and executives in the Automotive and Commercial Vehicles industry. As it is a free event, seats are limited…

Extensible prototyping

While automotive electronics makes driving much more comfortable, »electronified« modern cars also have shorter lifetime and design time than »oldtimers«. So, the new car with the heatable cigarette lighter won’t last for 20+ years like but we won’t have to wait 10 years for the successor. Development tools need to develop even faster…

Prototyping Lambda Probe

As cars become increasingly environmentally friendly, engine and exhaust control electronics get more and more complex. One consequence is that today it’s more or less impossible even to change a spark plug on one’s own, another is the pure intricacy of the design and development process.

TriCore on the road

We’ve all heard about the 60, 80 or 100 microcontrollers in todays or tomorrows cars, controlling ignition timing, displaying virtualized tachometers or illuminating the front-seat passenger’s ashtray. Since the assigned functions are so varied, those automobiles usually are a very diverse ecosystem for many different MCU families from a large number of different manufacturers.