ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - ELMOS Semiconductor AG

GROUP STATUS REPORT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS GROUP STRUCTURE GLOSSARY
Business and economic framework
ÿ The future of automotive electronics
Profit, financial and assets situation
Supplementary report
Risk report
Outlook report
The trends established by those trailblazers have meanwhile seized the entire indus-
try and have become accepted standards in many cases. Considering the variety of
electronic components and systems in modern cars and the increasing occurrence of
connected problems the question must be raised whether a market saturation might
have already taken place or whether electronics might be on the retreat again. This
is most certainly not the case as the combined solutions – in which mechanics and
electrics/electronics work together – have replaced the former purely mechanical
solutions increasingly in the last five years in particular. Those combined systems are
the superior and, above all, more economical solutions today’s cars cannot be imag-
ined without primarily for financial reasons. Even the planned “low-price cars” will
contain a minimum of electronic devices for engine control and safety systems. How-
ever, approaches must be developed on how to deal with the increasing demands on
development, production, and maintenance while familiar mechanical solutions are
increasingly replaced by more and more electronic control devices.
The experts’ reports delivered during the ELMOS workshop paid attention primarily
to three focal points.
NETWORK AND STANDARDIZATION
An increasing amount of functions require more and more connections between
sensors, control devices, and actuators in an automobile. Systems for comfort, safety,
and information technology are networked with adjusted so-called BUS systems and
made more efficient. This automotive network has clearly gained in importance since
the mid-nineties and now arrives at U.S. automobiles. The advantages of multiplex
wiring harnesses with significantly reduced weight are used in Europe in virtually
every car already.
One example: More than 40 electronic control units are fitted in the new Golf V from
Volkswagen. These are almost as many as in use in the premium cars Phaeton and
Touareg. For comparison: The predecessor model Golf IV only had 16 control units.
Thereby Volkswagen has caught up with the high amount of electronics customary
with premium manufacturers. Now it is up to all manufacturers to master the entire
system’s complexity safely. Therefore efforts for standardization are increasingly
successful. With regard to software the initiative AUTOSAR, which defines a sort of
“open systems interface” and intends to guarantee the cooperation and interchange-
ability of system components, is worth mentioning. Regarding hardware the estab-
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