The amount of software that new cars out of the driveway need is stunning! A premium car has up to 3,000 singular software-related functions with at least 100 million lines of code running on dozens of microprocessors. As the use of automotive embedded software were getting more complex, automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and companies from the semiconductor, electronics, and software industry worked together to develop a collaborative industry software standard: AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture).
AUTOSAR is a common standardized software architecture dedicated to automotive Electronic Control Units (ECUs), enabling the ease of use of component-based software design models and automotive systems development. AUTOSAR standard is improving the complex management of integrated electric/electronic (E/E) architectures by being the platform upon which upcoming automobile applications are developed and implemented.
As the automotive software is an industry-wide challenge, AUTOSAR partners aim to achieve:
- modularity: customizing software regarding the specific requirements of each ECU and its tasks.
- scalability: avoiding software redundancy by adapting common modules to different vehicles platforms.
- transferability: optimizing the use of available resources within the electronic architecture of the vehicle.
- reusability: improving product quality and reliability.
- standardization: standardizing interfaces between different software layers across manufacturers and suppliers
AUTOSAR addresses the challenge of rising code complexity by providing an open automotive software architecture. AUTOSAR is minimizing the barriers between functional domains; mapping functions and functional networks to different control nodes in the system, almost independently from the associated hardware.
AUTOSAR paves the way for innovative electronic systems that further improve performance, safety, and environmental friendliness. In addition, AUTOSAR enables cost-effective software development by removing the need for customer drivers; this makes the MCU easier to use, saves development and integration times, increases quality, and reduces overall costs.
Need to have million lines of code on your next embedded software project?
Make them run! Check www.nxp.com/AUTOSAR and start developing.