Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7070
Title: Automotive embedded systems software reprogramming
Authors: Schmidgall, Ralf
Advisors: Dear, I
Keywords: Microcontroller;Flash memory;Magnetoresistive RAM;Diagnosis;Vehicle
Issue Date: 2012
Publisher: Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses
Abstract: The exponential growth of computer power is no longer limited to stand alone computing systems but applies to all areas of commercial embedded computing systems. The ongoing rapid growth in intelligent embedded systems is visible in the commercial automotive area, where a modern car today implements up to 80 different electronic control units (ECUs) and their total memory size has been increased to several hundreds of megabyte. This growth in the commercial mass production world has led to new challenges, even within the automotive industry but also in other business areas where cost pressure is high. The need to drive cost down means that every cent spent on recurring engineering costs needs to be justified. A conflict between functional requirements (functionality, system reliability, production and manufacturing aspects etc.), testing and maintainability aspects is given. Software reprogramming, as a key issue within the automotive industry, solve that given conflict partly in the past. Software Reprogramming for in-field service and maintenance in the after sales markets provides a strong method to fix previously not identified software errors. But the increasing software sizes and therefore the increasing software reprogramming times will reduce the benefits. Especially if ECU’s software size growth faster than vehicle’s onboard infrastructure can be adjusted. The thesis result enables cost prediction of embedded systems’ software reprogramming by generating an effective and reliable model for reprogramming time for different existing and new technologies. This model and additional research results contribute to a timeline for short term, mid term and long term solutions which will solve the currently given problems as well as future challenges, especially for the automotive industry but also for all other business areas where cost pressure is high and software reprogramming is a key issue during products life cycle.
Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University
URI: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7070
Appears in Collections:Electronic and Computer Engineering
Dept of Electronic and Electrical Engineering Theses

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