LIN-Consortium Formed to Set New Class-A Communication Standard
6 March 2000
LIN-Consortium Formed to Set New Class-A Communication Standard for Vehicle Electronic Networks
New Consortium Will Create Strong Market Momentum - Numerous Applications
Under Development
DETROIT, March 6 The car manufacturers Audi AG, BMW AG,
DaimlerChrysler AG, Volvo Car Corporation AB, and Volkswagen AG, the
communications specialist Volcano Communications Technologies AB, and the
semiconductor manufacturer Motorola announce the formation of an industry
consortium with the objective to define and implement an open standard for
class-A serial buses in vehicle networks. The standard has been named Local
Interconnect Network (LIN) and will be the enabling factor for the
implementation of a hierarchical vehicle network in order to gain further
quality enhancement and cost reduction of vehicles. The standardization will
reduce the manifold of existing low-end multiplex solutions and will cut the
cost of development, production, service, and logistics in vehicle
electronics.
Typical applications for the LIN bus are assembly units such as doors,
steering wheel, seats, climate regulation, lighting, rain sensor, or
alternator. In these units the cost sensitive nature of LIN enables the
introduction of mechatronic elements such as smart sensors, actuators, or
illumination. They can be easily connected to the car network and become
accessible to all types of diagnostics and services. The commonly used analog
coding of signals will be replaced by digital signals, leading to an optimized
wiring harness. Numerous applications using the LIN bus are already under
development and will create a strong market momentum in Europe, the U.S.A.,
and Japan.
The increasing software complexity of today's distributed electrical
systems represents a major challenge for car manufacturers in terms of design,
implementation and maintenance of these systems during the lifecycle of a car
project. Provision for highly automated tools addressing the needs of this
process are essential in order to ensure efficiency, high quality and short
lead-times.
For this very reason -- as an industry first -- the LIN specification
covers not only the protocol definition itself, but also the standardization
of tool and application programming interfaces. The introduction of LIN is
accompanied by a holistic chain of tools supporting the car manufacturer in
all phases of the development project.
The goal of LIN is to define a communication standard below the level of
CAN -- the major standard in vehicle networking. With respect to cost and
performance, LIN is complementing CAN but not competing with it. LIN targets
low end applications where the communication cost per node must be two to
three times lower when compared to CAN and where the performance, bandwidth,
and complexity of CAN is not required.
The communication protocol is based on the common serial ISO 9141 NRZ
transmission. It is a single-master/multiple-slave protocol transmitted via a
single-wire bus powered by the 12V car battery. The concept of message
identification allows a multi-cast data transmission between any network node
controlled by the master. A particular feature of LIN is the incorporation of
a synchronization mechanism for slave nodes so that -- unlike CAN -- a
chrystal resonator is not required. This enables the application of true
single-chip solutions for low cost mechatronics.
The LIN standard includes the specification of the transmission protocol,
the transmission medium, the interface between development tools, and the
interfaces for software programming. LIN guarantees the interoperability of
network nodes from the viewpoint of hardware and software, and a predictable
EMC behavior. It is not exclusively defined for automotive applications and is
expected to be also successfully applied to industrial or white-good
electronics. A wide portfolio of semiconductor and software products is
already available for first LIN implementations.
The consortium was initiated as a workgroup in October 1998 and has
released the first specification documents in July 1999. Since then the
specification has been disseminated to more than 120 industrial parties
worldwide. First applications based on LIN are under development and will
start in car production in 2001 with three to ten LIN nodes per vehicle. The
number of nodes is expected to rapidly grow over the next decade to an average
of twenty per vehicle or a worldwide volume of approximately 1.2 billion LIN
nodes per year, respectively.
About Audi
Audi develops and builds high-quality cars on a worldwide scale. The
company has production sites in Germany, Hungary, Brazil, China and South
Africa. In 1999, Audi manufactured around 635,000 vehicles and over
1.2 million engines. Sales revenue was more than DM 27.2 billion. The Audi
Group has around 46,500 employees in total.
About BMW Group
The BMW Group -- a global company -- is a leading manufacturer of
automobiles and motorbikes, it offers a broad product range of attractive and
authentic brands such as BMW, Rover Cars, Land Rover, Mini and MG, and at the
beginning of 2003, Rolls Royce Motor Cars. 1999, 1.2 Mio. vehicles were
manufactured in the Group's international production network and generated
sales of EUR 34,4 billion. The automobiles are sold throughout 120 countries,
with Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States being the key markets.
About DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler is one of the world's leading providers of automotive,
transportation products and services. It has a global workforce and an
international shareholder platform. The Group represents products which are
known throughout the world: Its passenger car brands include Mercedes-Benz,
smart, Chrysler, Plymouth, Jeep and Dodge; commercial vehicles are produced
under the brand names Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Sterling and Setra.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) is active in the aviation and space systems
sector. DaimlerChrysler Services (debis) offers financial and other services
and is one of the world's largest independent providers of financial services.
About Motorola
Motorola is a global leader in advanced electronic systems and services.
It liberates the power of technology by creating software-enhanced products
that provide integrated customer solutions and Internet access via wireless
and satellite communications, as well as computing, networking, and automotive
electronics. Motorola also provides essential digital building blocks in the
form of embedded semiconductors, controls and systems. Sales in 1999 were
$30.9 billion.
About Volcano Communication Technologies
VCT is a privately owned Swedish limited company established 1998, with
headquarters located in Gothenburg, Sweden. It has attracted a substantial
investment funding from Volvo Technology Transfer and the 6th Fund Board of
the National Insurance Fund of Sweden. The mission of VCT is to bring a
combination of the best academic research and solid industrial experience in
real-time communications solutions for embedded systems to the commercial
marketplace.
About Volkswagen
Last year Volkswagen, the largest marque in the VW Group, delivered
3.05 million cars to its customers worldwide. That was 6.8 percent more than
in 1998 and represented a rise in Volkswagen's share of the world passenger
car market to over eight percent. Volkswagen's cars, the Lupo, Polo, Golf,
Bora, New Beetle, Passat, Sharan and their respective variants represent a
range of products from the small car to the MPV. As a company with a
tradition of environmental innovation, in 1999 Volkswagen launched the first
production car in the world with economy of 3 litres per 100 km or 94 mpg.
The best-selling car in Western Europe, the VW Golf, has for years had an
entire vehicle class named after it.
About Volvo Car Corporation
Volvo Car Corporation, part of the Ford Motor Company since 1999, invoiced
411,000 cars worldwide in 1999. Volvo Cars is the largest company in the
Premier Automotive Group, a group consisting of Aston Martin, Jaguar, &
Lincoln. 27,000 employees work for Volvo Cars out of which 18,000 in Sweden.
Safety, quality & environmental care are the core values for Volvo Cars and
the mission is "To be the world's most desired and successful premium car
brand."
For more information please contact Elizabeth Bert, 512-895-7435,
Elizabeth.Bert@motorola.com (US contact), or Europe Reader Contact: Kirsty
Davidson, +44 1355 35 5289, kirsty.davidson@motorola.com, both for Motorola.