A Glimpse into the World of Car Electronics
Automotive electronics has indeed come a long way since the times of ignition electronics in the 1970s. Today, an in-car embedded system is typically divided into several functional domains. Before we look at the trends in the market, let’s first take a look at those key domains within the car electronics industry.

First, the ‘engine and power train domain’ deals with the prime mover of the car – its engine and transmission control, emission control, fuel optimization, and safe operation of the car. Next, the ‘chassis domain’ deals with the motion of the car on the road including anti-lock brake system, rollover detection, electronic power steering, adaptive cruise control, electronic stability control, and active suspension. The ‘body domain’ deals with comfort of the passengers and the driver, covering keyless access, car security, and door control. The ‘in-vehicle networking domain’ allows these distributed controls to work in harmony to ensure safe operating parameters and ease of driving. The ‘infotainment domain’ includes analog radio, digital radio, car audio, video, gaming, navigation, content sharing, and connectivity of multiple media players. Finally, the ‘safety domain’ is an emerging domain concerned with the safety of the occupant - collision detection and avoidance, airbag systems, and so on.

Underlying Technologies – Status and Trends
Under the hood of the car, there are many micro-machined silicon products that function as intelligent sensors and actuators, augmenting the mechanical systems, implemented in ASICs that are now being replaced by ASSPs (Application Specific Standard Products). These are then co-ordinated by DSP-based or microcontroller-based engine control units (ECUs).

In-vehicle networking is organized in four classes. There are many networks in use, but the most popular are CAN (low-speed and high-speed) which may interact with an ECU, MOST (media-operated system transport) for multimedia data, and FlexRay for predictable, fault-tolerant communication used in safety applications. For example, the Volvo XC90 embeds up to 40 ECUs inter-connected by a LIN bus, a MOST bus, a low-speed CAN, and a high-speed CAN. FlexRay is emerging as an important in-vehicle networking standard, and NXP was the first company to produce a FlexRay transceiver and FlexRay v2.1 supported microcontroller.