Page 42 - Understanding Automotive Electronics

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THE SYSTEMS APPROACH TO CONTROL AND INSTRUMENTATION 2

The Systems Approach to

Control and Instrumentation

Generally speaking, electronic systems function to control, measure, or
communicate. Automotive electronic systems fall generally into these same
three application areas. The major categories of automotive electronic systems
include
1. Engine/power train control
2. Ride/handling control
3. Cruise control
4. Braking/traction control
5. Instrumentation (instrument panel)
6. Power steering control
7. Occupant protection
8. Entertainment
9. Comfort control
10. Cellular phones
Historically, automotive electronics was confined primarily to
communications, with the incorporation of AM radios and police-car two-way
radio systems. These remained the only significant electronics applications
throughout the 1930s and 1940s. This was an era in which vacuum tubes were
the only important active electronic devices.
The development of solid-state electronics, beginning with the transistor
in the late 1940s and evolving through high-performance integrated circuits,
provided a technology that was compatible with the evolution of other
automotive electronic systems such as ignition systems, turn signals,
instrumentation, and a variety of other automotive subsystems. Perhaps the
biggest evolutionary jump occurred in the 1970s with the advent of electronic
fuel control systems, a step motivated primarily by government regulations (as
we will show later). Since then the evolution of electronic systems in
automobiles has seen spectacular growth, such that automotive electronics is
now estimated to account for 10% to 25% of the cost of the vehicle, depending
on feature content.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This book will discuss the application of electronics in automobiles,
from the standpoint of electronic systems and subsystems. In a sense, the
systems approach to describing automotive electronics is a way of organizing

UNDERSTANDING AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS 29