ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an overview of today's state of the art in the standardization of automotive software infrastructures. It also provides a short overview of the automotive hardware architecture. The chapter explores information on the software modules specified by the German working groups Offene Systeme und deren Schnittstellen fur die Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug—Vehicle Distributed Executive (OSEK/VDX). The OSEK/VDX standard was the result of the endeavors of major German and French car manufacturers and their suppliers to create a standardized software infrastructure for automotive electronics. The chapter illustrates the software modules standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It explains the software modules defined by the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM). The chapter deals with the Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) initiative. The application software in AUTOSAR is structured into software components (SWCs) that communicate via ports and are interconnected by means of connectors.