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Electronic Control Systems describes the evolution of electronic control systems and examines growth experienced in the four main system categories - safety and convenience, powertrain, body controls, and entertainment and communications. The system trends and technologies are covered in detail. The report concludes with a summary of the challenges, changes on the horizon, and a discussion of how sustainable competitive advantage can perhaps be achieved.

This paper will discuss advances in electronic component technology that has been developed specifically for failsafe and fault-tolerant automotive systems such as braking and chassis control systems. These systems need to be highly dependable, and exhibit predictable behavior in the event of a system fault. Such systems often perform many real-time self-checking operations to detect the occurrence of a fault. Integrated on-chip hardware can be used in such systems to help ensure that the dependable system can provide a ‘fail-safe’ operating mode. There are many different configurations of hardware used in such embedded systems to realize the fail-safe methodology, each having its own unique characteristics in terms of fault coverage, costs, complexity and performance. Hardware implementations, as opposed to software plausibility checks by a watchdog, are often advantageous and require less systems development effort.

The objective of this paper is to examine the state-of-the-art technologies driving the development of advanced electronic chassis control systems. In addition, the paper provides an overview of how the future systems will function and reveals the benefits to the consumer by these advanced solutions. Advanced electronic chassis control systems naturally segment into several categories including advanced electronic braking systems, advanced electronic steering systems, electronic suspension systems, and collision warning / avoidance systems. Together, these intelligent, automated, vehicle control systems offer the consumer a safer driving experience with a higher performing, more fuel efficient, and environmentally friendly automobile.

The global automotive market is in the midst of the most significant changes in it's history. Multiple factors are changing the very nature of the market and the players. Globalization is accelerating with non-global players being replaced by more efficient, lower cost global ones. Suppliers are combining forces in order to position themselves in key segments and create the ability to supply large “chunks” of the vehicle. New legislation is driving increasing intelligence into safety systems. The importance of electronics continues to increase with car sales increasingly being driven by style and feature content. This paper looks at trends in electronic safety and convenience systems that affect the auto makers ability to personalize the driving experience.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the challenge of increasing complexity in automotive electronics and the advanced semiconductor solutions which are being developed to simplify these systems. The main areas which are discussed are the increase in throughput / performance requirements, future implementations of multiplexed communications systems which provide high dependability, increasing memory requirements and the challenge of increased sensor implementation.

The objective of this paper is to provide an introduction to the main features of the Time Triggered Protocol (TTP/C) multiplexed communications protocol for fault-tolerant automotive systems. In future generations of vehicles there is a requirement for systems which provide highly dependable operation. Brake-by-wire and Steer-by-wire systems are being developed which have no mechanical / hydraulic back-up functionality in the event of an electrical system failure condition. These systems will be required to tolerate a system failure and continue to operate without catastrophic effects. The Time Triggered Protocol is a multiplexed serial communications protocol which has been developed over the last fifteen years to help meet the requirements of such systems. This paper will discuss the principles of TTP/C and explain the key elements which make it suitable for such applications.

The objective of this paper is to discuss latest developments in the semiconductor technology industry which lead to state-of-the-art automotive electronic systems. Automotive systems are becoming increasingly complex as throughput requirements for electronic control units (ECUs) increase and a number of networks are being implemented to share data between ECUs. The motivation behind this explosion of electronics will be discussed along with the challenges which are faced in realizing solutions. Advanced ‘system-on-a-chip’ semiconductors are being developed as an enabling technology to facilitate such systems. This paper will discuss the most significant requirements of such automotive systems and the types of semiconductor technologies which are to be provided as leading edge solutions. In addition to breakthroughs in silicon integration and performance, associated technology requirements such as packaging and development tools are changing significantly.

The objective of this paper is to define how complex automotive electronics have become and how advanced semiconductor technology is being developed to simplify the development of these systems. Automotive systems are becoming more complex electronically than could ever be imagined. There are now many Electronic Control Units being implemented on vehicles which are each linked to separate networks and are sharing data on high speed buses. In order to handle the increasing processing bandwidth required, and to interface effectively with the many sensors and actuators on the modern motor vehicle, significant advances are being made in semiconductor technology. The types of systems which are becoming more complex will be defined along with the reasons for becoming so. ‘System chips’ are now being developed which can integrate together different types of semiconductor technology in order to reduce chip-count, size and increase performance and reliability.