The next time you get in your car, take a moment and look around – a good collection of electronic content is not there? Yes, there. In fact, most projections indicate that the use of electronics in automobiles is increasing so rapidly that by the end of the decade, more than 40 percent of the cost of a car is in electronics. That's a surprising number that is virtually impossible to imagine 10 to 15 years ago, but now is very much a reality.

What you see electronically from their point of view in the driver's seat is just the tip of the iceberg. With advanced features in the car such as telematics, DVD / video, satellite radio, GPS navigation, automatic climate control, electronic stability control, door electric seats, mirrors and windows … the fact is that there is an increasing amount of sophisticated electronics in the car. And these are only systems that can see.

Beneath the surface of your vehicle, changes have occurred in the last 10 years just as dramatic as those in the passenger compartment. Almost all systems in which an actuator drove the mechanical or hydraulic system has been replaced by an electronic sensor and switch of increased mechanical systems and water. Many of these critical systems and electronic control units (ECU), management of the brakes, airbags and steering.

The "Electronification" the car is being driven by consumers today and its demands for greater reliability, not to mention the most basic desire for more sensory sputtering. As a result, automakers are struggling to recruit talent and reshape an industry that, until recently, mechanical engineers and software had dominated design. A new day is dawning in the world of cars, and automakers and their suppliers need an expert staff and supplier of electronic of the support structure that can cope with electronic design problems that are unique in the automotive field.

The main challenge facing designers of automotive electronics is the high degree of connectivity to the vehicle. In just the last decade, the magnitude and complexity interconnection of automotive electronics has increased dramatically. Depending on the vehicle, it can be 3 to 15 ECU (over 50 in some vehicles high range), with hundreds of integrated software modules, and each of these applications should be inter-communication. Adding to the complexity is that each presents its ECU own challenge, as software, middleware and software applications written by different companies, however, must be integrated together within the overall framework of the vehicle.

The pressure is on level one suppliers because automakers today is not the design of electrical systems is the responsibility of the level of many providers, one for the design of electronic subsystems inside our vehicles. Tier-one, in turn, depend on the levels, two suppliers, essentially of semiconductor vendors and PC-Board design, supply and even custom design components for each ECU.

Manufacturers design cars, four years before his commercial release, so automakers are working today in 2012 cars, vans, SUVs and trucks to be launched in mid-2011. They take responsibility for designing an approximation of the inventory of electronics, such as A list of ECUs and their performance specifications. This can even include information on the ECU networks, including low-and high-speed controller networks local area networks and interconnection. The manufacturers rarely specify the actual electronic components, but rely on their suppliers to delve into that detail.

This is only the beginning of the process. The manufacturer specifications stores raw providers offers level one, reduces the field to perhaps three finalists for each one ECU, and requires that each of the finalists to deliver a prototype within six months. Once the prototype meets the functionality requirements, the supplier designs scale model ECU. When the manufacturer begins testing is not unusual for specifications to change the ECU, further increasing time, money and complexity to the design phase.

And therein lies the crux of the challenge facing automotive companies – How to shorten the traditional automotive design phase in relation to the changing demands of today's electronics consumers anxious. Ask yourself: "How many people know they have a four year old cell phone? "With the entertainment options available to consumers, both outside and inside their vehicles, carmakers are under pressure to keep up with the demands of these consumers, many of which are updating their entertainment devices each year.

Manufacturers and suppliers are to meet the challenges. In real time, design and testing, streamlined communications development through each level of design, more standardized products and application specific standard products – these are just some of the solutions being implemented to deliver leading-edge electronics to an increasingly demanding automotive customers today and tomorrow, cars and trucks.

About the Author:

Mike Trudel, Freelance Writer. Delphi Corporation is poised to apply its expertise and know-how to provide vehicle manufacturers and consumers with in-vehicle entertainment and connectivity. To learn more about Delphi Corporation, please visit

www.Delphi.com/4Connected
.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – As Electronics Expand, So Do the Challenges Facing Automotive Designers

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