An Ultra High Bandwidth Automotive Rapid Prototype System

For developers of automotive control, prototyping and initial tests
are a hassle. Commercial solutions are available but the price and especially
the price/performance ratio opens the field for more cost effective solutions.
Automotive rapid prototype systems seen so far are mainly processor based
systems with standard interrupt driven measurement and actuation. Control
systems based on high time resolution measurements of for example cylinder
pressure are difficult to implement using these systems, neither is it possible to
implement controller loops with an extremely high bandwidth in combination
with expensive algorithms. Measurement and actuation within the same engine
cycle, In Cycle Control (ICC) are not possible. The proposed system is based on a
mixed system consisting of one standard x86 processor which is configured through
Simulink and a reconfigurable application specific integrated circuit (an FPGA)
configured either by relevant FPGA design tools or by Simulink. This layout of the
rapid prototype system enables the designer to implement either ICC with very
high bandwidth (only limited by the capacity of the injection system) or betweencycle
control with medium bandwidth. The aim of this paper is to describe one
possible configuration of such a system and to discuss the possible performance
outcome of the final system.