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Custom functions are widely used in real-time embedded automotive applications to conserve scarce processor resources. Typical examples include mathematical functions, filtering routines and lookup tables. The custom routines are very efficient and have been in production for many years [ 1 ]. These hand-crafted functions can be reused in new control algorithm designs being developed using Model Based Design (MBD) tools. The next generation of vehicle control software may contain a mix of both automatically generated software and manually developed code. At Ford Motor Company, the code is automatically generated from control algorithm models that are developed using The MathWorks tool chain. Depending on the project-specific needs, the control algorithm models are automatically translated to efficient C code using either The Math Works Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder (RTW-EC) or dSPACE TargetLink production code generators.

Lookup tables and functions are widely used in real-time embedded automotive applications to conserve scarce processor resources. To minimize the resource utilization, these lookup tables (LUTs) commonly use custom data structures. The lookup function code is optimized to process these custom data structures. The legacy routines for these lookup functions are very efficient and have been in production for many years. These lookup functions and the corresponding data structures are typically used for calibration tables. The third-party calibration tools are specifically tailored to support these custom data structures. These tools assist the calibrators in optimizing the control algorithm performance for the targeted environment for production. Application software typically contains a mix of both automatically generated software and manually developed code. Some of the same calibration tables may be used in both auto generated and hand-code [ 1 ] [ 2 ].

With the introduction of new technologies ranging from developing new alternative energy vehicles to passive and active safety systems, the automakers are responding to the increased complexity of the control system by embracing Model Based Design (MBD) and Auto-code Generation (ACG) tools for control system design. This translates into lower development costs, higher quality and faster time-to-market. The Ford Motor Company production hybrid group launched a pilot project to study the feasibility of using MBD to speed up the development and testing of the next generation Torque Monitor software. This software uses a custom data storage format, called Double Store Variable (DSV) format, for all the critical signals. Each variable contains two fields, one for storing the actual data and the second for storing a transformed copy (e.g. one's complement) of the data. This allows the software to detect run-time corruption of the data in real-time.