ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT

• US 20150278001A1
• Filed: 02/25/2015
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: TOHYAMA, Naohiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,513,679 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs

Abstract

An electronic control unit includes a microcomputer and a monitoring section. The monitoring section monitors an operation of the microcomputer and outputs a reset signal to the microcomputer when determining that an abnormality occurs in the microcomputer. The microcomputer includes an acquisition section, a determination section, and a time calculation section. The acquisition section acquires time information from outside the microcomputer. When the microcomputer starts up, the determination section determines whether the microcomputer stopped the operation due to unknown cause. When the determination section determines that the microcomputer stopped the operation due to unknown cause, the time calculation section calculates stop time information based on the time information acquired by the acquisition section before the microcomputer stopped the operation and the time information acquired by the acquisition section after the microcomputer starts up, and stores the stop time information in a time storage portion.

Claims

1. An electronic control unit comprising:

a microcomputer including an acquisition section, a determination section, and a time calculation section; and

a monitoring section monitoring an operation of the microcomputer and outputting a reset signal to the microcomputer when the monitoring section determines that an abnormality occurs in the microcomputer, wherein

the acquisition section acquires time information from outside the microcomputer,

when the microcomputer starts up, the determination section determines whether the microcomputer stopped the operation due to unknown cause; and

when the determination section determines that the microcomputer stopped the operation due to unknown cause, the time calculation section calculates stop time information that indicates a time during which the microcomputer stopped the operation based on the time information acquired by the acquisition section before the microcomputer stopped the operation and the time information acquired by the acquisition section after the microcomputer starts up, and stores the stop time information in a time storage portion.

2. The electronic control unit according to claim 1, wherein

when a power supply switch is turned on, the microcomputer is supplied with a power supply voltage and starts up,

when the microcomputer detects that the power supply switch is turned off, the microcomputer stops the operation,

the microcomputer further includes a history storage section,

the history storage section periodically determines whether the power supply switch is on or off and stores history information that indicates a determination result in a history storage portion,

when the microcomputer starts up, the determination section determines whether the history information stored in the history storage portion indicates that the power supply switch is on, and when the history information indicates that the power supply switch is on, the determination section determines that the microcomputer stopped the operation due to unknown cause.

3. The electronic control unit according to claim 1, wherein

the microcomputer further includes a prohibition section, and

when the stop time information is calculated by the time calculation section, the prohibition section prohibits an operation of the time calculation section until a number of times of the microcomputer normally stopping the operation becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined number of times.

4. The electronic control unit according to claim 3, wherein

the microcomputer further includes a prohibition invalidation section, and

the prohibition invalidation section determines whether a time indicated by the stop time information calculated by the time calculation section is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and when the time is not equal to or less than the predetermine value, the prohibition invalidation section invalidates a function of the prohibition section.