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LIN Bus – A Cost-Effective
Alternative to CAN
PLDs are ideal for implementing
LIN buses, offering fast time
to market, flexible design
options, low cost, and low
power consumption.
by Karen Parnell
Automotive Product Marketing Manager
Xilinx, Inc.
Karen.parnell@xilinx.com
The automotive industry is constantly striving
to reduce costs but at the same time
introduce new and innovative comfort and
convenience features to meet customer
demand. Almost all automotive companies
have adopted various busing systems to
reduce wiring complexity and weight, and
hence overall costs. This also results in
increased fuel efficiency.
Although flexible topologies are ideal,
the need exists for global standards to offer
better business cases to suppliers, which
would ultimately lead to greater competition
and lower prices. J1850 (in the U.S.)
and the ubiquitous Bosch-defined
Controller Area Network (CAN) (in
Europe) are the most popular standards to
date, but in some applications can be considered
overkill.
In such applications you could consider
using LIN as an alternative. The Local
Interconnect Network (LIN) is a singlewire
UART-based networking architecture
originally developed for automotive sensor
and actuator networking applications. The
LIN master node connects the LIN network
to higher-level networks like CAN,
extending the benefits of networking all the
way to the individual sensors and actuators.
92 Xcell Journal Winter 2004