Control strategies take many paths

I/O, EMC, and SIL are among the acronyms transforming controller development.

As engineering teams develop electronic controls, they are continuously altering the parameters that determine how systems will be built. Establishing requirements for CPUs has transformed over time into a quest for the right peripheral mix: safety and reliability are both increasingly important, and the trade-offs between distributed and centralized architectures continue to evolve.

In systems as diverse as engines, electrohydraulics, and cabs, engineers who view microcontrollers as a mainstay in their arsenal of solutions are constantly shifting their usage patterns as semiconductor capabilities develop. The rapid rate of change in microcontrollers gives engineers more capabilities, but this evolution also raises questions that keep changing.