Hot updates to ECU software using tool chain

• US 10,496,398 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2018
• Issued: 12/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aurora Labs Limited
• Original Assignee: Aurora Labs Limited
• Inventors: Fox, Zohar
• Primary Examiner(s): Do, Chat C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Slachta, Douglas M
• Application Number:
  US16/044,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20190034192A1
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/021 Means for detecting failure or malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/02 Ensuring safety in case of control system failures, e.g. by diagnosing, circumventing or fixing failures
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0205 Diagnosing or detecting failures; Failure detection models
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0225 Failure correction strategy
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/04 Monitoring the functioning of the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/045 Monitoring control system parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1629 Error detection by comparing the output of redundant processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0284 Multiple user address space allocation, e.g. using different base addresses interprocessor communication G06F15/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0646 Configuration or reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/572 Secure firmware programming, e.g. of basic input output system [BIOS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1008 Correctness of operation, e.g. memory ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1044 : Space efficiency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1056 : Simplification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/033 : Test or assess software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 : Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 : Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 : using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 : while running
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 : Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/66 : of program code stored in read-only memory [ROM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 : Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 : Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 : Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 : Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 : Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Disclosed embodiments relate to performing updates to Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software while an ECU of a vehicle is operating. Operations may include receiving, at the vehicle while the ECU of the vehicle is operating, a software update file for the ECU software; writing, while the ECU is operating, the software update file into a first memory location in a memory of the ECU while simultaneously executing a code segment of existing code in a second memory location in the memory of the ECU; and updating a plurality of memory addresses associated with the memory of the ECU based on the software update file and without interrupting the execution of the code segment currently being executed in the second memory location in the memory of the ECU.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations for performing updates to Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software while an ECU of a vehicle is operating, comprising:

receiving, at the vehicle while the ECU of the vehicle is operating, a multidimensional delta file for the ECU software, the multidimensional delta file having a plurality of dimensions,

wherein one or more of the plurality of dimensions of the multidimensional delta file are generated based on identified differences between a plurality of attributes of a software change to be stored on the ECU of the vehicle and a corresponding plurality of attributes of current software stored on the ECU of the vehicle;

writing, while the ECU is operating, the multidimensional delta file into an available memory location in a single memory of the ECU while simultaneously executing a code segment of existing code in an existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU; and

updating a plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU based on the multidimensional delta file and without interrupting the execution of the code segment currently being executed in the existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU;

configuring the ECU software to run according to the software change without requiring rebooting of the ECU; and

deleting, from the single memory of the ECU, data representing outdated values of variables referenced by the ECU,

wherein the ECU software is mapped to a plurality of functional units, at least one of the functional units being associated with the delta file, and wherein the ECU is configured to utilize a virtual file system (VFS) to manage and track one or more versions of each of the plurality of functional units.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein updating the plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU comprises updating a plurality of memory addresses of the plurality of functional units managed through the VFS.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the multidimensional delta file comprises startup code integrated into the multidimensional delta file and configured for executing the multidimensional delta file in the ECU.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the startup code is configured to initialize a runtime library of the multidimensional delta file.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions further comprise:

initializing the runtime library before writing the multidimensional delta file into the available memory location of the ECU.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the startup code is further configured to update a program counter of the ECU to execute an instruction contained in the multidimensional delta file.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the multidimensional delta file further comprises variable data representing a value of a variable referenced by the multidimensional delta file.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the startup code is further configured to extract the variable data from the multidimensional delta file and place the variable data into a random-access memory accessible to the ECU.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

deleting data representing a previous value of the variable referenced by the multidimensional delta file.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the multidimensional delta file further comprises code for updating memory addresses in the single memory of the ECU.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein startup code is further configured to extract the code for updating the memory addresses and update the memory addresses in the single memory of the ECU.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

defragmenting the single memory of the ECU after completing the software change.

13. A system for performing updates to Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software while an ECU of a vehicle is operating, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memories having instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the operations of;

receiving, at the vehicle while the ECU of the vehicle is operating, a multidimensional delta file for the ECU software, the multidimensional delta file having a plurality of dimensions,

wherein one or more of the plurality of dimensions of the multidimensional delta file are generated based on identified differences between a plurality of attributes of a software change to be stored on the ECU of the vehicle and a corresponding plurality of attributes of current software stored on the ECU of the vehicle;

writing, while the ECU is operating, the multidimensional delta file into an available memory location in a single memory of the ECU while simultaneously executing a code segment of existing code in an existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU; and

updating a plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU based on the multidimensional delta file and without interrupting the execution of the code segment currently being executed in the existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU;

configuring the ECU software to run according to the software change without requiring rebooting of the ECU; and

deleting, from the single memory of the ECU, data representing outdated values of variables referenced by the ECU,

wherein the ECU software is mapped to a plurality of functional units, at least one of the functional units being associated with the delta file, and wherein the ECU is configured to utilize a virtual file system (VFS) to manage and track one or more versions of each of the plurality of functional units.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein updating the plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU comprises updating a plurality of memory addresses of the plurality of functional units managed through the VFS.

15. A computer-implemented method for performing updates to Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software while an ECU of a vehicle is operating, the method comprising:

receiving, at the vehicle while the ECU of the vehicle is operating, a multidimensional delta file for the ECU software, the multidimensional delta file having a plurality of dimensions,

wherein one or more of the plurality of dimensions of the multidimensional delta file are generated based on identified differences between a plurality of attributes of a software change to be stored on the ECU of the vehicle and a corresponding plurality of attributes of current software stored on the ECU of the vehicle;

writing, while the ECU is operating, the multidimensional delta file into an available memory location in a single memory of the ECU while simultaneously executing a code segment of existing code in an existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU; and

updating a plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU based on the multidimensional delta file and without interrupting the execution of the code segment currently being executed in the existing execution code memory location in the single memory of the ECU;

configuring the ECU software to run according to the software change without requiring rebooting of the ECU; and

deleting, from the single memory of the ECU, data representing outdated values of variables referenced by the ECU,

wherein the ECU software is mapped to a plurality of functional units, at least one of the functional units being associated with the delta file, and wherein the ECU is configured to utilize a virtual file system (VFS) to manage and track one or more versions of each of the plurality of functional units.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein updating the plurality of memory addresses associated with the single memory of the ECU comprises updating a plurality of memory addresses of the plurality of functional units managed through the VFS.