EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

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.

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.

embedded world 2010: That’s how the future will look like

Despite the crisis, the the industry’s international get-together continues its growth: The trade show embedded world 2010 is setting trends and records. Especially within the automotive area there is a lot of movement going on: The amount of electronics, software and control devices installed in motor vehicles is growing dramatically, and the move towards electric cars will only strengthen this trend.

STMicroelectronics: evaluation kits for free

During the trade show embedded world 2010 which is going to take place in Nuremberg from March 2nd to 4th, STMicroelectronics intends to distribute its “STM8S-Discovery Kit”, a quick-start evaluation board. It enables developers to discover the possibilities of ST's 8-bit microcontroller family STM8, which targets automotive, industrial and ultra-low-power applications.