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BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Motorola and Philips present their joint development activity related to the FlexRay communication system that is intended for distributed applications in vehicles. The designated applications for powertrain and chassis control place requirements in terms of availability, reliability and data bandwidth that cannot be met by any product currently available on the market under the testing conditions encountered in an automobile. A short look back on events so far is followed by a description of the protocol and its first implementation as an integrated circuit, as well as its incorporation into a complete tool environment.

This paper presents a platform-based approach for the design of System-on-Chips for safety-critical microcontrollers, in which a set of HW and SW IPs, tools and methodologies are used for detection and correction of faults affecting the different parts of the electronic equipment. The IEC 61508 norm has been used as guideline and a systematic validation methodology with fault injection is presented. The paper shows an application of this approach to a PHILIPS reference platform, and first results are given in terms of benefits and costs.

The FlexRay specifications have been available for some time. During this period considerable effort has been invested to implement the first FlexRay networks. This paper reports on the first experiences of implementing real networks, specifically in designing the communication controller and developing the layout of the entire FlexRay network architecture. In both cases one major challenge was how to verify that the system worked in all the possible configurations available with the numerous set up parameters on offer. It is shown that a method of constrained random-test based simulations solves this problem and notably supports full system development. Variants of the method were used for validation of the protocol specification, verification of the Protocol Engine, selection of the Controller Host Interface concept and investigation of the physical limits of different network topologies.

The BMW Group is the first car manufacturer introducing FlexRay in series projects. Start of production is September 2006, where a pilot application is implemented in the chassis domain of the new BMW X5. In 2008 FlexRay will form a substantial part of the overall electronics architecture in form of a FlexRay network connecting multiple ECUs implementing chassis, powertrain, and driver assistance applications.

The memory sub-system is one of the most critical blocks in a microcontroller unit (MCU) with respect to safety integrity: it represents the main repository for data and codes, but at the same time it is the most sensible location for HW and SW faults. For random HW faults, protection techniques exist, both at technology and circuit-level: but some unsolved issues still remain. For SW faults, Memory Protection Units (MPU) are commonly used to prevent unauthorized access to certain memory areas. The standard MPU is CPU-centric and therefore it does not offer a complete protection at MCU level, specifically not for memory subsystems with more than one master (multi-master microcontroller). This paper describes a fault supervisor for memory sub-system that overcomes known insufficiencies and that has been designed in accordance to IEC 61508.