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Historically, the long development time required to produce a new automobile has meant that the electronics in that vehicle might lag the state-of-the-art by several years. For traditional vehicle electronics, this was certainly an appropriate delay, ensuring through extensive testing and qualification that the quality and reliability of the electronic systems met rigorous standards. However, with the growing consumer-oriented electronics content in today's vehicles, it is becoming more difficult for the automotive manufacturers to meet consumers' expectations with older technology. Couple this with the fast-paced consumer product cycle, typically nine to eighteen and the result is increasing pressure on the vehicle manufacturers from after-market electronics suppliers, who can update their product lines as fast as the component manufacturers can produce new models.

The complexity and number of electronic devices and services in the automobile is growing tremendously. Telematics systems combine consumer-oriented devices with automotive electronics to form new devices and services. Significant differences exist between the automotive industry and the consumer electronics industry in the development, marketing, and life cycle of electronic devices. These differences have fueled the growth of an $11B automotive aftermarket industry as consumers pursue new technology and features, greater selection, personalization and lower cost. The challenges encountered due to these differences are presented along with historical solutions. The automotive and cellular phone industry development processes and designs are examined. Various approaches and methods to reach the goals of flexibility, ability to upgrade, lower cost, risk reduction, and time to market are also discussed.

Switch fabric communication networks have been proposed for use in automobiles as a means of reducing the physical complexity of communication and control systems. Such networks have proven very valuable in telecommunications and business computing applications. Similar advantages are foreseen in the automotive area. This paper begins to summarize the partitioning and communication requirements of a highly-distributed engine control system that would be part of a switch fabric network in a vehicle. Engine controls have traditionally been constructed by connecting a large number of input and output devices to a large-scale control module. Most of the signal conditioning and output driving circuitry is combined with a microcontroller and other specialized integrated circuits in the control module. In a vehicle with a switch fabric network, some of the signal conditioning and drive electronics would be distributed out to the actual input and output devices.

A capacitor discharge ignition system tailored to modern automobile requirements has been developed which can be triggered direct from the regular distributor cam with breaker points or magnetic pick-up sensor. The system features improved fouled plug firing capability using the conventional ignition coil, draws current from the battery only when engine is rotating, and promises good performance in cold weather starting applications. Special attention has been given to keep ignition radiated radio interference to a minimum without sacrificing spark energy requirements for the many conditions of engine operation.

The car radio has been an integral part of the delivery of information and entertainment to the vehicle for more than half a century. With the advent of the Internet, the nature of the infotainment content available to the consumer has dramatically changed. This paper describes an infotainment device, similar to Motorola's iRadio™ and hereafter generically referred to as the i-radio, which leverages the familiar car radio paradigm to allow the user to safely "browse'' through a variety of Internet and traditional content using multi- modal input and output. It further discusses a robust, secure Java-based framework that enables the rapid development and deployment of distributed infotainment and safety service applications for this device.