ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of state-of-the-art in standardization of automotive software infrastructures. It also provides short overview of the automotive hardware architecture. The chapter presents information on the software modules specified by the German working groups Offene Systeme und deren Schnittstellen fur die Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug/Vehicle Distributed Executive. It describes the software modules defined by the Hersteller Initiative Software group. The chapter illustrates the software modules standardized by the International Organization for Standardization. It deals with the Automotive Open System Architecture initiative. The hardware architecture of automotive systems can be viewed at different levels of abstraction. On the highest level of abstraction, the “system level,” an automotive system consists of a number of networks interconnected via gateways. The networks themselves comprise a number of electronic control units (ECUs), which are interconnected via a communication media. An ECU comprises one or more microcontroller units as well as one or more communication controllers.
