What is OSEK/VDX?



 

In May 1993 OSEK has been founded as a joint project in the German automotive industry aiming at an industry standard for an open-ended architecture for distributed control units in vehicles. OSEK is an abbreviation for the German term "Offene Systeme und deren Schnittstellen für die Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug" (English  "Open Systems and the Corresponding Interfaces for Automotive Electronics"). Initial project partners were BMW, Bosch, DaimlerChrysler, Opel, Siemens, VW and the IIIT of the University of Karlsruhe as co-ordinator. The French car manufacturers PSA and Renault joined OSEK in 1994 introducing their VDX-approach (Vehicle Distributed eXecutive) which is a similar project within the French automotive industry. At the first workshop on October 1995 the OSEK/VDX group presented the results of the harmonised specification between OSEK and VDX. After the 2nd international OSEK/VDX Workshop in October 1997 the 2nd versions of the specifications were published.

The open architecture introduced by OSEK/VDX comprises the three areas :

ForCommunication and Operating System, there are alternative standards for normal requirements (standard operating system/communication specifications), or special requirements covering globally synchronised fault-tolerant architectures (OSEKtime specifications).

Motivation

Goal

Support of the portability and reusability of the application software by:

Advantages

A structured and modular software implementation based on standardised interfaces and protocols as proposed by OSEK/VDX is a necessary condition for the portability and extendibility, and thus the reusability of existing software. Functional extendibility means the integration of new application functions into a single control unit together with other application functions. Application porting is the transfer of application functions from one hardware platform to another one with only minor modifications, e.g. porting of existing application software to the next product generation of an ECU. Moreover, extendibility and portability should be independent of the supplier of application functions, i.e. a "co-habitation" of software from different suppliers must be possible. It shall be remarked that OSEK/VDX does not prescribe the implementation of OSEK/VDX modules, i.e. different ECUs may have the same OSEK/VDX interfaces, but different implementations, depending on the hardware architecture and the performance required.
   

Structure

The Steering Committee which consists out of the  mentioned partners above is responsible for the overall project organisation and co-ordination (e.g. assignment of working group leaders), for granting of licenses to other companies, and for the external representation of OSEK/VDX (e.g. publications).
The participation in the Technical Committee offers associated partners to actively co-operate in OSEK/VDX. Currently the technical committee is formed by the initial OSEK/VDX partners and over 50 associated partners from different industries related to automotive electronics, i.e. car manufacturers, automotive suppliers, semiconductor industries and software companies. Obviously, OSEK/VDX is open for the integration of additional associated partners.

 

OSEK/VDX initial partners (Steering Committee)

Technical Committee partners

STEERING COMMITTEE, 
Accelerated Technology Inc.,
ACTIA,
AFT GmbH,
Ashling,
ATM Computer GmbH,
Blaupunkt,
Borg Instruments GmbH,
C&C Electronics,
Cambridge Consultants,
Continental Teves,
Cummins Engine Company,
Delco Electronics,
Denso,
EDS
Epsilon GmbH,
ETAS GmbH & Co KG,
FIAT- Centro Ricerche,
Ford (Europe),
FZI,
GM Europe GmbH,
Greenhills,
Grupo Antolin,
Hella KG,
Hewlett Packard France,
Hitachi Micro Systems Europe Ltd.,
Hitex,
IBM Deutschland Entwicklung GmbH,
Infineon,
INRIA,
Integrated Systems Inc.,
IRISA,
Lauterbach
LucasVarity,
Metrowerks
Magneti Marelli,
Mecel,
Motorola,
National Semiconductor,
NEC Electronics GmbH,
Noral,
NRTA,
Philips Car Systems,
Porsche AG,
Sagem Electronic Division,
Softing GmbH,
ST Mircroelectronics,
Stenkil Systems AB,
Sysgo Real-Time Solutions GmbH,
TECSI,
Telelogic GmbH,
TEMIC,
Texas Instruments,
Thomson-CSF Detexis,
Trialog,
UTA - United Technologies Automotive,
Valeo Electronics,
VDO Adolf Schindling GmbH,
Vector Informatik,
Visteon,
Volvo Car Corporation,
Wind River Systems,
3Soft GmbH.

Click here to travel to the page "Status and Specifications"
Homepage of  OSEK/VDX


Last Update: 2000/09/17