Chip simulation used to run automotive software on PC

Simulation has great potential to improve the development process for automotive ECUs. Simulation helps to move development tasks to PC, where they often can be performed faster, cheaper or better. However, development tasks such as calibration and test are typically performed by an OEM, while the ECU code is owned by the supplier of the ECU. Therefore, the OEM is often unable to set up a simulation for PC based on the original C code of the ECU. In this paper, we show how to overcome this problem. The key idea is to run automotive software on PC by emulating the target processor of the ECU, which enables simulation of automotive software on PC without accessing the corresponding C code. To be of practical use for automotive development, such a 'virtual ECU' must provide interfaces to automotive standards and tools used for measurement, calibration, and closed-loop simulation. The lack of such automotive interfaces is the main reason that chip simulators, although on the market since decades, have not been used in this domain so far. The paper shows how to bridge the gap by complementing chip simulation with additional services needed to simulate ECU behaviour on the level of detail seen by function developers, calibration engineers or the driver of a car. To demonstrate the usefulness of the approach, we also report how ECU simulation as described here and implemented by our virtual ECU tool Silver is currently used by car makers to develop engine controllers.