To manage complexity and emphasize safety and reliability with electronic control units (ECUs), dSpace offers an offline simulator to create virtual ECUs on a PC. The simulator interacts with dSpace ControlDesk Next Generation and AutomationDesk for ECU development and testing. Architects simplify design and reduce risks by modeling virtual ECUs using software to integrate the ECU's application, then implement the virtual ECUs on a PC with the offline simulator. Users can perform consistency tests, check plausibility of interfaces, and verify task scheduling early on, validating functionality before the first ECU prototypes are available. Vehicle and component models can be reused in later development phases. Tests also can be designed on a PC first, then substantiated by offline simulation to save testing time on a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator.