Electronic control system for automobile

a technology of electronic control system and automobile, which is applied in the direction of vehicle position/course/altitude control, process and machine control, instruments, etc., can solve the problems of serious influence on the provision of functions to the user, serious influence on the use of old version software as well as new version software, and user hardly can use, etc., to improve reliability, simplify re-rewrite processing significantly, and simplify re-rewrite processing.

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-11-16
DENSO CORP
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] The present invention therefore has a primary object to provide an electronic control system for an automobile that can perform rewrite processing of control software stored in a nonvolatile memory in such a way that even when the rewriting fails, the system can ensure providing of functions to a vehicle user.

Problems solved by technology

In case where the rewrite processing of a new version of software has failed for some reason (for example, communication failure, bugs and erroneous operation of rewrite processing, hardware abnormality, etc.) during the rewrite processing, old version software as well as new version software becomes unusable or suffers dysfunction.
This causes serious influence on providing functions to the user.
For example, in the case where the ECU is configured to start an extra routine regarding rewriting of the application program when the ECU is restarted after resetting, not only the ECU does not operate automobile functions that the user usually enjoys but also transfers into an input waiting state of the rewrite processing, which the user can hardly understand and may be driven into confusion.
Meanwhile, when the rewrite processing is performed in such a way that an update version program is overwritten on an old version program (invalidated) in a flash ROM, there is a case where the rewrite processing fails because of some cause (for example, electric power cutoff of the ECU, communication failure, bugs and erroneous operation of the rewrite processing, hardware abnormality, and connector dropout in the case where rewriting is performed with an exclusive rewriting tool bearing the update version program being connected to an in-vehicle network, and the like) during the rewrite processing of the update version program.
In this case, the failure causes the old version program as well as the update version program to be unusable or fall into dysfunction, which gives serious effects on providing functions to the user.
However, like the above conventional ECU, when the rewriting firmware is configured to receive the start instruction from the application program side, once the rewrite processing of the application program fails, normal start of the application program cannot be expected at all after that.
As a result, it is no longer possible to start the rewriting firmware in order to repair this.
Therefore, re-execution of the rewrite processing will become impossible.
However, it takes much time to remove the ECU mounted in a deep location of the vehicle body, which will lead to waste of unexpected time and labor for normal restoration.

Method used

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Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

first embodiment

[0061] Referring to FIG. 1 showing an electrical configuration an electronic control unit (ECU) of an electronic control system for an automobile, an ECU 1 has a main control unit made up of a CPU 3 and performs control processing of electronic apparatuses mounted on an automobile as control target apparatuses to be controlled based on execution of a predetermined application program (control software) 18. The main control unit is further made up of a ROM 5, a RAM 4, and a microprocessor to which an input / output unit (I / O port) 2 are bus-connected. The ECU 1 is constructed as a body (chassis) system ECU for handling a control of a body system of an automobile in this embodiment. Each of application programs 18 operates on a platform 5b, and an individual work area therefor is ensured in the RAM 4. The platform 5b is for providing an operation environment common to the application programs even when pieces of hardware serving as bases differ from one another, and is constructed with ...

second embodiment

[0097] As a second embodiment, the same address space in the nonvolatile memory may be used by the first memory 5P and the second memory 5S in such a way that the memory space is shared by switching over their connection to the bus. In this case, the memory on the sub-storage area side is connected to the bus, and rewrite processing of the update version program is performed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 10A, two flash ROM's (nonvolatile memories) each of which is designed as an independent memory chip are provided and made to function individually as the first memory 5P or the second memory 5S, respectively, either of which is selectively connected to the bus by the switch 9.

[0098] When the rewrite processing has normally ended, what is necessary is just to use the update version program in the memory connected to the bus for execution as the current version program (as a result, the sub-storage area has been changed over to the main storage area). At this time, since the memory...

third embodiment

[0104] Referring to FIG. 11 showing a third embodiment, an ECU 301 has a main control unit made up of a CPU 303 and performs control processing of electronic apparatuses (control target apparatuses; devices to be controlled) mounted on an automobile based on execution of the predetermined application program (function controlling software) by the main control unit. Specifically the ECU 301 further has a ROM 305, a RAM 304, and a microprocessor to which I / O units (I / O ports) 302 are bus-connected. In this embodiment, the ECU 301 is constructed as a body system ECU that handles a control of a body (chassis) system of an automobile. Each application program 318 is stored in the ROM 305 and operates on a platform 305c stored similarly on the ROM 305, and an individual work area 304d is secured in the RAM 304. The platform 305c provides an operation environment common to each application program even when hardware serving as a base is different, and consists of an interface program that ...

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PUM

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Abstract

In an ECU, a flash ROM has a main storage area for storing a current version of an application program and a sub-storage area for storing update version program that includes updated points from the current version program. A rewriting tool executes program rewrite processing including: store processing of storing the update version program in the sub-storage area; and memory changeover processing in which, when the writing of the update version program in the sub-storage area has been done successfully, the sub-storage area where the storing of the update version program has ended is changed over to a new main storage area instead of a memory area currently being used as the main storage area. When the writing in the sub-storage area has failed, the changeover is not conducted.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Applications No. 2005-122734 filed on Apr. 20, 2005 and No. 2005-125518 filed on Apr. 22, 2005. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an electronic control system for an automobile. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Automobiles are equipped with electronic control units (ECUs) each for controlling various electronic apparatuses to be controlled. Each ECU has a main control unit composed of a CPU, and performs control processing of electronic apparatuses mounted on the automobile based on execution of predetermined control software. This control software is recently stored in a flash ROM (flash memory) so that its contents can be updated at any time for version-ups, correction of bugs, etc. of stored application programs (U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,848 corresponding to JP 10-111863A; US 20030221049A1 corresponding to JP 2003-337748A; JP 20...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G06F17/00
CPCG06F8/65G06F11/1433Y02B60/183Y02D10/00
Inventor NATSUME, MITSUYOSHI
Owner DENSO CORP
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