Performance Up, Costs Down: Continental Supporting Manufacturers with E/E System Architecture

• Long experience as an electronics manufacturer ensures performance and cost optimization
• Extensive set of portfolios extends from requirements analysis to validation
• Concept for functional safety an essential component in the development process

Villingen-Schwenningen, November 2015. The growing demands placed on the functions of buses, coaches, trucks, agricultural machinery and construction equipment are increasing the complexity of their electronic systems and their interlinking. Current legislation is also calling for more and more verifications from manufacturers. This makes a professionally planned and optimized electric/electronic (EE) system architecture increasingly important. It also helps to optimize the performance, safety and dependability of the vehicle while reducing the costs for electronics. For dependable interaction of the components, Continental supports the vehicle manufacturers, from requirements analysis to validation of the EE architecture, ensuring conformity with current safety standards.

“Advice from our electronics specialists is in demand from the manufacturers of smaller runs particularly during the changeover from an analog to a digital structure. We can, thanks to our extensive expertise as a major electronics manufacturer with decades of experience, provide holistic support”, says Dr. Michael Ruf, head of the Commercial Vehicles & Aftermarket business unit at Continental. Customers can select from a set of portfolios the precise level of support they need: requirements analysis, software architecture, communications technologies, specification and selection of components, support for integration into the vehicle and validation. With their software tool, the planners at Continental can simulate various architecture scenarios, design a customized system architecture and document the entire process from start to finish. Customers receive process-conforming data. A crucial component of the entire development process is the concept for the functional safety of the system. It ensures, in line with current standards, that all components performing a safety function operate dependably. This is a service that Continental offers for existing system architectures too.