b - ASAM

Solutions Guide 2007 SECTION ONE
association for the standardisation of automation & measuring systems
allow different equipment and software to
work together with new electronic
components without modification for a longer
period of time.
ASAM also offers many advantages to
suppliers of components, systems, and
equipment. Instead of developing their
products with separate interfaces for each
manufacturer, suppliers can now build
products to ASAM standards that can be used
by the many manufacturers that support
ASAM. Following the ASAM standards gives
Suppliers a competitive advantage in selling
to the many large manufacturers, such as
General Motors, DaimlerChrysler,
Volkswagen, BMW, and others that have
adopted the standards. A spreading cooperation
with ISO (International
Standardization Organization) provides for
long-term stability of ASAM basic standards
and secures the investments of the vehicle
manufacturers, the system suppliers and the
application manufacturers.
The Standards
AE–Automotive Electronics–
Software Development, Connection
and Use of Controllers
Not only must the interface to the electronic
vehicle measurement devices be
standardized, but also their data description
formats and application interfaces must be
standardized. To this end, ASAM defines a
complete set of standards:
MCD-1 defines the connection of a
controller to a computer.
MCD-2 contains the description of the
controller existing service (diagnostics,
Flash programming, calibration...).
MCD-3 specifies the interface between an
application system (e.g. diagnostic or
calibration system) and a controller in form
of an application program interface (API).
MSR defines methods for data exchange
between controller suppliers and vehicle
manufacturers systems. Standards like CC
(Container Catalog), CDF (Calibration Data
Format), MDX (Meta Data Exchange Format)
and MBFS (Model Based Function
Specification) were developed in this domain.
ASAM GDI - Plug & Play Standard
for Devices and Systems
ASAM GDI makes it possible to connect
devices and subsystems simply and smoothly
with test automation systems. In this standard
the capability of the equipment regarding its
communication is available in an electronically
readable form (DCD). To achieve genuine
Plug & Play the different device classes were
defined in a Companion standard (e.g. Crash
measuring technique, exhaust analyzer,
dynamometer, many channel measuring
instruments...). The GDI standard is platform
independent because of the specified
platform adapter for each operating system.
The coordinator with its API can connect to
several devices simultaneously. The GDI
standard supports real time systems and
uniform integration scenarios.
ASAM ACI - Automatic Calibration
and Optimization
Increasing device complexity requires the use
of an ever larger family of device
characteristics which increases the time to
determine this family of characteristics. For
electronic controllers, such as the engine
and/or the transmission controllers, this
procedure is called calibration. In order to
produce an automatic population of the field
parameters, optimization software at the test
stand is used. The data from each operating
point is communicated to the automation
system where software can determine the
device characteristic values. The interface
between optimization software and
automation system was standardized by
ASAM. The ACI interface makes it possible to
combine the available optimization systems
and the independent automation systems.
ASAM CEA - Software Components
for Analysis and Graphic Display
In the field of test stand technology, there are
many software packages for the analysis of
the measurement results. Automatic
evaluation of the data and special result
computations are required. ASAM with the
CEA standard meets these general
requirements allowing the use of independent
analysis software systems. The CEA standard
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