As if rollovers, suicidal deer, and thieves who break in with laptop computers weren't enough to worry about, now there's a new menace on the roadways - high-energy neutrons from cosmic rays.

Let's back up a moment. The increasing complexities and decreased time-to-market demands for automotive electronics has caused some manufacturers to migrate from microcontrollers and ASICs to field-programmable logic arrays (FPGAs). Devices based on volatile SRAM are the most common and also the most economical, but they rely on successfully loading and maintaining the device configuration into RAM upon each power-up.

Corruption of SRAM - where a stray cosmic ray disrupts the electron charge of a memory cell - has been a known phenomenon in the PC world for quite some time, but typically does not put the user at risk of a safety-critical failure. The story isn't the same in an automobile, where SRAM corruption can potentially cause a malfunction, or even the complete shut-down of a powertrain or safety system device. As annoying as PC crashes may be, it figures that a similar event in an ECM, ESP, or airbag module would be far worse.

It's highly unlikely that we'll ever see a recall that advises owners to minimize exposing their vehicles to cosmic radiation, but this issue does provide a sliver of insight into the challenges faced by those who design today's ever-more-complex vehicles.

[Source: Automotive Design Line via EE Times]

PSA: Beware of cosmic rays originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With descriptions of the engine control module (Part 1) and sensors (Part 2) now out of the way, it's time to take a look at some of the other hardware that keeps engines running. Some of these devices will be quite familiar, and others may not seem to be immediately related to engine management or emission controls. Rest assured, however, that all are necessary to keep things running smoothly, reliably, and cleanly.

Continue reading Engine management and emission controls (Part 3)

Engine management and emission controls (Part 3) originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In Part 1 of this series, we took at look at the engine control module (ECM), the "brains" of a modern vehicle's engine management and emission control systems. Next, we're going to dig a bit deeper and investigate the various sensors that feed information about the vehicle's operating conditions to the ECM.

Continue reading Engine management and emission controls (Part 2)

Engine management and emission controls (Part 2) originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A modern engine makes use of a wide variety of technology, but it's not necessarily well-understood by the majority of the motoring public. Considering that this stuff isn't rocket science (for the most part), we figured that it's time to lift the hood on one of the cars in our garage and walk through its engine management system. Getting through it all will take a while, but your patience will be rewarded with a significantly improved understanding of what makes your car's powertrain tick.

Continue reading Engine management and emission controls (Part 1)

Engine management and emission controls (Part 1) originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.