METHOD TO ENSURE SAFETY INTEGRITY OF A MICROPROCESSOR OVER A DISTRIBUTED NETWORK FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

• US 20110257833A1
• Filed: 07/08/2010
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Trush, Christopher J., Sundaram, Padma
• Granted Patent: US 8,380,392 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/33
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0006 Digital architecture hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/04 Monitoring the functioning of the control system
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

A processor integrity system in a vehicle includes m main processor modules that control at least m respective functions of the vehicle, where m is n integer greater than or equal to one. A monitoring processor module controls at least one function of the vehicle, communicates with the m main processor modules over a distributed vehicle network, selectively transmits a query to at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network, receives an answer from the at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network, that verifies integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules based on the answer.

Claims

1. A processor integrity system in a vehicle, the system comprising:

m main processor modules that control at least m respective functions of the vehicle, where m is n integer greater than or equal to one; and

a monitoring processor module that controls at least one function of the vehicle, that communicates with the m main processor modules over a distributed vehicle network, that selectively transmits a query to at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network, that receives an answer from the at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network, and that verifies integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules based on the answer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring processor module compares the answer to an expected answer that is based on the query to verify the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the monitoring processor module increments a counter if the answer does not match the expected answer.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the monitoring processor module decrements the counter if the answer matches the expected answer.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the monitoring processor module initiates a remedial action if the counter exceeds a predetermined value.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring processor module receives the query from the at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring processor module adjusts the query after verifying the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring processor module retransmits the query to the at least one of the m main processor modules after verifying the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring processor module transmits the query to at least two of the m main processor modules.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the main processor module transmits a different query to each of the m main processor modules.

11. A processor integrity method in a vehicle, the method comprising:

controlling at least m respective functions of the vehicle using m respective main processor modules, where m is n integer greater than or equal to one;

controlling at least one function of the vehicle using a monitoring processor module;

communicating with the m main processor modules over a distributed vehicle network using the monitoring processor module;

selectively transmitting a query from the monitoring processor module to at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network;

receiving an answer from the at least one of the m main processor modules at the monitoring processor module over the distributed vehicle network; and

verifying integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules based on the answer using the monitoring processor module.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising comparing the answer to an expected answer that is based on the query to verify the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules using the monitoring processor module.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising incrementing a counter using the monitoring processor module if the answer does not match the expected answer.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising decrementing the counter using the monitoring processor module if the answer matches the expected answer.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising initiating a remedial action using the monitoring processor module if the counter exceeds a predetermined value.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving the query at the monitoring processor module from the at least one of the m main processor modules over the distributed vehicle network.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising adjusting the query using the monitoring processor module after verifying the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising retransmitting the query to the at least one of the m main processor modules after verifying the integrity of the at least one of the m main processor modules using the monitoring processor module.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising transmitting the query to at least two of the m main processor modules using monitoring processor module.

20. The method of claim 11 further comprising transmitting a different query to each of the m main processor modules using the main processor module.