End of Line tests are brief set of tests intended to evaluate ECU's in order to ensure correct functioning of its intended functionality.
As these tests are executed on the production line, available time to perform these tests is limited. On one hand, faster production demands require these tests and its framework to be designed in a time optimized manner. On the other hand, increase in ECU functionality translates to an increase in test's functional coverage, requiring more time. Therefore the time taken to execute the tests reaches a critical point in overall ECU production.
Availability of multicore microcontrollers with increase in clock speed can increase the performance of end of line tests, but design challenges e.g. synchronization do not guarantee a linear performance increase. Therefore, design of test execution framework is absolutely critical to increase performance of test execution.
This paper attempts to provide a framework design that uses multicore based microcontroller solution to increase test execution.
The paper details out currently available test setup, followed by a design analysis to outline critical areas limiting EOL performance. Subsequently, mechanisms using multicore based solutions such as dynamic task allocation will be detailed to overcome these limitations and new requirements for the same shall be specified. The paper will also provide information on the implementation and comparison results with a single core solution. As the concluding step, future challenges shall be outlined.
The microcontroller mentioned in this paper refers to Infineon 32-bit Tricore™ MCU, TC178x and AURIX™.