The development of ECU software has been the focus of
improvement since its widespread inception in the late 1970's.
Since that time, we have seen the transition from assembly language
to higher level languages, like C, to higher levels of abstraction
with the use of MATLAB® to build C language constructs. One of the
areas that had not changed significantly is the methods used to
evaluate, validate and verify performance.
In many applications, software has been validated on the bench
using the generated code in conjunction with the target ECU and
some sort of I/O simulation technique. In other applications, such
as AUTOSAR, software components may be developed and tested in a
virtual environment on a PC and later transferred to the target ECU
for functional testing in a simulated environment on the bench.
In this paper, the concepts for two new tools are presented. The
first concept describes an emulation platform that automatically
configures the AUTOSAR Run Time Environment (RTE) and Basic
Software (BSW) to test the performance of AUTOSAR software
components using traditional techniques or cycle by cycle in the
virtual environment. Because software is usually available for a
target ECU long before the production hardware is available, the
use of such an emulator to execute target ECU binaries provides an
understanding of system behavior and aids in identification and
resolution of performance issues before they are encountered in the
vehicle.
The second concept is a monitoring and debugging platform for
AUTOSAR software components that reside on a target ECU. It will
leverage the information contained in the AUTOSAR Run Time
Environment (RTE) and Basic Software (BSW) to gage the performance
of a Software Component (SWC) and assist in debugging any anomalies
discovered at this level.
