ELECTRONIC CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20010016789A1
• Filed: 11/19/1999
• Published: 08/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: STAIGER, DIETER E.
• Granted Patent: US 6,292,718 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P

Abstract

An electronic control system for controlling the function of a processing system is provided, especially for the use in an automotive vehicle, wherein said control system comprises a plurality of logical control elements, each of which is especially adapted to perform special tasks, whereby each of said control elements is able to communicate with every other control element.

Claims

1. Electronic control system for controlling the function of a processing system, especially in an automotive vehicle,

characterized in that

said electronic control system comprises a plurality of main logical control elements, each of which is especially adapted to perform special tasks, whereby each of said control elements is able to communicate with every other control element.

2. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein four logical control elements are used.

3. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein said control elements are represented by individual processors.

4. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein said control elements are represented by specific hardware elements, namely standard μ

-Controllers, programmable or firmware-controlled State-Machines and Sequencers or combinatorial asynchronuous or sequential Boolean logic circuits.

5. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein said control elements are represented by a single CPU.

6. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein said control elements are represented by software.

7. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein one of the logic control elements functions as a common access point.

8. Control system as in

claim 2

, wherein said control elements are arranged in a tetrahedron geometry.

9. Control system as in

claim 7

, wherein three of said control elements comprise immediate link ports and one arbitrated link port, connected with the control element functioning as the common access point.

10. Control system as in

claim 9

, wherein the link ports preferably use identical data link protocol and/or the physically representation thereof.

11. Control system as in

claim 1

, wherein control element 1 represents the specific functionality of system support applications, element 2 covers all applications related with real-time networks and direct hardware controls, element 3 exercises all human interface applications and the ECU specific functionalities, and element 4 functions as a network access point connecting to ECU-external extension units and to local area networks (LAN) or wide area networks (WAN).

12. Control system as in

claim 11

, wherein the system support applications are choosen from the group consisting of power management, wake-up and sleep control, system vitality monitor and system fault handling.

13. Control system as in

claim 11

, wherein the direct hardware is choosen from the group consisting of motors, relays and other real-time ECUs.

14. Control system as in

claim 11

, wherein the human interface applications are choosen from the group consisting of physical I/O, visual I/O and voice I/O.

15. Control system as in

claim 9

, wherein the arbitrated link uses the standard bus access technique Collision Sense Multiple Access (CSMA).

16. Use of the control system of any one of the preceding claims in an automotive vehicle.