A dynamic reconfigurable processor and a design tool for the next generation ECUs

During the last two decades, electronic control units (ECU) became key components in automotive. This market is consequently getting very competitive and constrictive in term of both demanded functionalities and time to market (TTM). Hence, ECU design has become very tough and new technical solutions are to be found by manufacturers. In this context, we believe that dynamic reconfigurable processors are a pertinent solution for forthcoming ECU design. In effect they can provide with efficient all-software design flow from high-level languages, as well as higher performance and lower power consumption than general purpose processors. As an illustration, this paper introduces a dynamic reconfigurable processor along with a high-level synthesis design tool.