Software Development Process and Software-Components for X-by-Wire Systems

The term X-by-Wire is commonly used in the automotive industry to describe the notion of replacing current mechanical or hydraulic chassis and powertrain systems with pure electro-mechanical systems.

The paper describes the current trends and the architecture of future chassis electronics systems. The first part of the paper covers the systems architecture of x-by-wire electronics systems. We describe the network and the software architecture in more detail. The paper also explains some of the software components, in particular the operating system and the communication layer.

The second part of the paper gives a description of the current state of the development process for software intended for safety-relevant systems. A possible tool chain for this development process, current possibilities as well as limitations and challenges are described.