The days of firing the spark plug once in a while and changing the mixture while monitoring engine temperature is gone.

We have just released a C compiler for a peripheral processor that is part of a multiprocessor controller used in automotive engine controllers. The processor tools that we did was for the part that talks directly to spark, injectors, intake and exhaust
valving. Increasing attention to fuel efficiency means that the engine controllers are adjusting mixture in some cases every 3 microseconds during intake with separate profiles per cylinder.

The peripheral processor has two identical execution engines (One application program, interesting software) a mac, 24 bit word, 4 timers per pin (32 I/O pins) and a hardware real time executive. The hardware is essentially a thread machine architecture.
Each of these processors can run multiple PID loops.

To complete the engine control there is a host processor on the same die that feeds setpoints and gets performance information to the peripheral processors.

The combination has the computing power of a good laptop.

w..




Andrew Warren wrote:
>
> Nikhil Praveen <PICLIST@mitvma.mit.edu> wrote:
>
> > does that mean PICs are unsuitable for this purpose?
>
>     Probably, yeah.  Ideally, you'd want a fast microprocessor with
>     powerful timers, a large memory space accessible through an
>     external address/data bus, analog inputs, maybe an analog output
>     or two, etc.
>
>     Motorola and Intel, among others, have micros that were
>     specifically designed for automotive engine-management
>     applications; you may have better luck with one of those than
>     with a PIC.
>
>     -Andy

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