The diagnostic communication interface of electronic control units (ECU) has to be supported by the OEM during the whole life cycle of the vehicle. It is the only external access possible in the late product phases. The process chain comprises the diagnostics and test of ECU functions in engineering and road test, the production of vehicles as well as maintaining and retrofitting functions in the dealership.
More and more OEMs are introducing diagnostic solutions which support the whole process chain, while in the past different phases of the vehicle life cycle had been covered by different partial solutions which often haven't been compatible with each other. Thus the co-operation with suppliers had unnecessary difficulties.
Beside other activities to link the different phases more closely, one remedy is to use accepted standards developed by ISO (e.g. Keyword Protocol 2000 according to ISO 14230 or 15765), SAE or the ASAM Association (e.g. ASAM MCD). The system architecture of ASAM MCD enables the development of diagnostic applications using standardised interfaces and data descriptions. Standardised data descriptions allow OEMs to integrate different ECU suppliers into the process chain early on and have interchangeable tools and corresponding data due to standardized interfaces. This paper presents the ASAM standards ASAM MCD-2 and -3.
Due to the long life cycle of diagnostic data (up to 40 years !) migration scenarios are important to smooth the transition from proprietary solutions into the new ASAM world. Practical requirements and migration strategies of DaimlerChrysler and VW/Audi are presented.