Eduard Rhein Foundation Technology Award 2008: Bosch Engineers Honored For Invention And Promotion Of The CAN Data Bus

MUNICH/STUTTGART, GERMANY – November 18, 2008: The two former Bosch engineers, Dr. Siegfried Dais and Prof. Dr. Uwe Kiencke, have been presented the Eduard Rhein Foundation's Technology Award 2008. With this award, the panel of eminent judges paid tribute to the invention, international standardization and the widespread distribution of the controller area network (CAN bus) in the automotive, automation, medical, consumer goods, and consumer electronics areas. "With its forward-looking design, this concept has established itself globally for technical data communication, similar to internet communication," said Prof. Dr. Klaus Bender in his tribute at the award-giving ceremony at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Dr. Siegfried Dais is now the deputy chairman of the globally operating Bosch Group, and Prof. Dr. Uwe Kiencke is now a lecturer in industrial information technology at the elite university in Karlsruhe, following many years of work as a Bosch engineer. In 1985, Dais and Kiencke were the driving forces behind the filing of the pioneering concept of the CAN data bus as a patent, together with colleagues and associates. Later on, they used a good deal of management and license policy skill to promote it as a worldwide standard that is used in a wide range of technological applications.

Crucially important technically and economically
The Eduard Rhein Foundation honors the convincing technological and economical achievements of the two Bosch engineers with its Technology Award 2008. Unnoticed by many people – even by many experts -, the inner workings of technical products in virtually all sectors had undergone a

technological revolution, the Foundation said. Microelectronics and microprocessor development in the 1970's had not only given birth to the PC, but also to a far greater number of technical data controllers, which were mostly embedded in machines and their components. In addition, these controllers also determined the product functions in a growing number of devices and articles of daily use. It was obvious that these controllers had to be able to communicate with each other and with superordinate computers, just as PCs can. The Foundation's curatorship describes the award-winners' achievements as follows: "For this purpose, the controller area network CAN has developed to become the world's most significant embedded communication system, creating a market with several billion euros' sales. CAN is the central nervous system of virtually all modern technical products."

CAN data bus technology
The standard controller area network (CAN) was developed by Bosch specifically for data exchange between electronic control units, switches, sensors, and actuators in vehicles. Equally, CAN is also used in industrial microcontroller networks. For example, as a bus system that connects machine tools with the computers that control them, for data supply between measurement, control, and display functions and superordinate computers, as well as for connecting sensors, actuators, and controls.

In motor vehicles, the CAN bus replaces heavy and expensive wiring harnesses with a simple data line. It was tailored for automotive applications by Bosch engineers. On the one hand, it is essential for managing the increasing number of electronic functions in automobiles. On the other hand, it is scaled for the typical data quantities in automobiles and operates with the extremely high transmission reliability that is required for safety-relevant features such as the electronic anti-skid system ESP.

Although Bosch developed the CAN bus for automotive technology, it has become a standard in other sectors for a variety of technical applications – in particular as a data bus for automation technology. CAN links avionics systems in the airplane technology sector, and modern laboratory equipment in the medical technology sector. Further significant uses of CAN include agricultural machinery and railway technology as well as building technology, for example in elevator controls, where the benefits of secure data transmission are especially important. The list of applications also extends to the consumer goods sector, and products such as washing machines, stoves, and consumer electronics. Without being aware of it, every German uses more than ten CAN functions in normal everyday life.

CAN is one of the German inventions of the past decades which has found widespread application and great economic significance on a global scale. CAN has been a major influence shaping modern information technology in vehicles and contributes to the innovative strength of the automotive industry. The economic significance of the CAN data bus is also due to its widespread use in many other sectors.