Yet another article on Ethernet, Firewire and MOST...

Yet another article on what communication technology will be used in future infotainment systems. Read it fast since the articles in Automotive Engineering tends to be removed from the on-line edition after a while...

ETHERNET and 1394 spar with MOST for infotainment openings

Most interesting to read that Toyota starts using MOST now in two vehicles (new Prius and Lexus RX). I have the impression that they would not "commit" to such a change in technology if they did not belive it would stay.

Review of the vehicle’s electrical and electronic architecture

Just being back from my summer vacation hiatus I found a good summary of present challenges for a vehicle’s electrical and electronic architecture from just-auto. I haven't figured out if the news archive is available forever so read it fast if you are interested...

A second interesting article was about the use of firewire (1394) in automotive applications: 1394 Automotive network enables powerful, cost-efficient in-vehicle networks for infotainment, navigation, cameras from Automotive DesignLine.

Some blog posts

Some blog posts which I think are interesting from an automotive software architecture viewpoint:

• Riversimple to Unveil Open Source Car in London This Month
• Genivi's Open Source Car Infotainment Efforts Ramping Up
• Video: Open Source for Car Infotainment
• GENIVI no threat to Microsoft in near term
• What TomTom suit may really be about

Paper accepted

Yes!!!

Dear Ulrik and Carl,

We are pleased to inform you that your research paper,

"A Case Study of the Architecture Business Cycle for an In-Vehicle Software Architecture",

has been accepted for inclusion in the program of the Joint Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture & European Conference on Software Architecture 2009 (WICSA/ECSA 2009), which will be held on September 14-17 in Cambridge, UK.

As with previous WICSA & ECSA conferences, we anticipate a lively gathering, drawing both academics and practitioners, and featuring paper presentations, keynotes, working group sessions, tutorials, and workshops.

Of the initial 112 submissions (of which 84 research papers), the program committee accepted 23 high-quality research papers. Congratulations on being included in this select group.

In preparing your paper for publication in the IEEE conference proceedings please keep in mind the following:
1. In order for us to include the paper in the proceedings, at least one of the authors must register for and attend the conference. If this is going to be impossible please let us know as soon as possible so we can adjust the conference program.
2. To the extent possible, your final version of the paper should reflect the reviewers' comments and suggestions for improvement.
3. The paper must be formatted according to IEEE proceedings guidelines and the final length is strictly limited to 10 printed pages. Further details may be found in the "Submission of Camera-ready Copy" section of the WICSA/ECSA 2009 web site at http://www.wicsa.net.
4. To accommodate publication schedules, final camera-ready copies must be submitted by June 30, 2009.

Once again, congratulations on having your paper accepted. We look forward to receiving your final revised paper, and to seeing you in September in Cambridge, UK.

Yours sincerely,

Flavio Oquendo, Eltjo Poort, Judith Stafford
Program Chairs, IEEE/IFIP WICSA/ECSA 2009

The paper has the following abstract

A Case Study of the Architecture Business Cycle
for an In-Vehicle Software Architecture
This paper presents the theoretical and practical benefits
from a case study using Architecture Business Cycle to
understand the management of software architecture at an
automotive manufacturer. The study was done to prepare for
architectural changes driven by new technology and in the
automotive business environment.
Our results show that the architecture business cycle
worked well in defining the theoretical context for the study
after some modifications; the architecture had to be precisely
defined in the interview situation to gain more useful data
rather than broad generalisations. Further contributions
of the study were a deeper understanding of role of the
architecture and it’s position among other artefacts in the
organisation, and an increased focus on architectural issues
in management meetings. The study also indirectly affected
a subsequent re-organisation.

What are OEMs doing in the field of software architecture?

A colleague from Ford in Dearborn asked me if I had any information on activities at other OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in the area of software architecture. I did a quick search in my Zotero database and arrived at the following list. Some are available on-line, use Google Scholar to find.

1. F. Fabbrini, M. Fusani, G. Lami, and E. Sivera, “Software Engineering in the European Automotive Industry: Achievements and Challenges,” Computer Software and Applications, 2008. COMPSAC '08. 32nd Annual IEEE International, 2008, pp. 1039-1044
   Paper from Fiat


2. P. Giusto, S. Kanajan, C. Pinello, and M. Chiodo, “A Conceptual Data Model for the Architecture Exploration of Automotive Distributed Embedded Architectures,” Information Reuse and Integration, 2007. IRI 2007. IEEE International Conference on, 2007, pp. 582-587.
   Paper from General Motors


3. K. Grimm, “Software technology in an automotive company: major challenges,” Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, Portland, Oregon: IEEE Computer Society, 2003, pp. 498-503.
   Paper from Daimler


4. Hans Grönniger, Jochen Hartmann, Holger Krahn, Stefan Kriebel, Lutz Rothhardt, and Bernhard Rumpe, “View-Centric Modeling of Automotive Logical Architectures,” TU Braunschweig, 2008.
   Paper from BMW


5. G. Reichart and M. Haneberg, “Key Drivers for a Future System Architecture in Vehicles,” Proc. Convergence 2004, Detroit, MI, USA: SAE, 2004.
   Paper from BMW


6. C. Tischer, A. Muller, M. Ketterer, and L. Geyer, “Why does it take that long? Establishing Product Lines in the Automotive Domain,” Software Product Line Conference, 2007. SPLC 2007. 11th International, 2007, pp. 269-274.
   Experience paper from Bosch engine management systems


7. S. Voget, “Future Trends in Software Architectures for Automotive Systems,” Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications 2003, Springer, 2003, pp. 457-469.
   Paper from Bosch


8. K. Nishikawa and K. Kajio, “TOYOTA Electronic Architecture and AUTOSAR Pilot,” Proc. SAE World Congress, Detroit, MI, USA: SAE, 2007.
   Paper from Toyota


9. D. Selin et al., “A Reference Architecture for Infotainment Systems,” Proc. Convergence 2004, Detroit, MI, USA: SAE, 2006, Document Number: 2006-21-0013
   Experience paper from Volvo Car Corporation


10. R. McGee, “Managing Vehicle Control System Architecture is a Key Enabler for Strategic Reuse,” National Workshop On High Confidence Automotive Cyber-Physical Systems, April 3-4, 2008, Troy, Michigan (USA)
    Position paper from Ford Motor Company

The list is not very long. I have some reasons why:

• Most research articles on automotive software architecture are written by researchers, not car manufacturers.
• Strategic decisions on software architecture can be seen as a business advantages and are therefore not published.
• I have a a quite long backlog of articles in the area of automotive software architecture which I have not read yet, there may be more among those.

I have also some news flashes in previous post in this blog which might be of interest. Search the label of Automotive software.

Interviews with Volvo EESE managers

I got a link to a web clip with an interview with my manager Hans Alminger on automotive software modelling from the Electronica Automotive Conference 2008. A bit late, but anyway...

A very recent interview with Hans' (and therefore also my) boss Lennart Lundh can be read in the latest issue of Automotive Engineer on integrating functionality in fewer and bigger ECUs. It does not get hotter of the presses than this...

Student Presentation on Software Architecture

This post is the next episode in the series of "Software Architecture Basics".

I found the following presentation made by some of the students of the Software Engineering & Management at the IT University. I'm impressed that they managed to boil down almost a full course to a single presentation with a rather light touch (yes, there are some technical details that could be discussed, but nevertheless).
I wish I could take credit for being their teacher, but I only gave a single lecture in their architecture course.

Software Architecture Presentation