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FlexRay(TM) Consortium Being Formed to Drive Initiative for Advanced Automotive Communication System

16 October 2000

FlexRay(TM) Consortium Being Formed to Drive Initiative for Advanced Automotive Communication System 
    DETROIT, Oct. 16 FlexRay consortium being formed to drive
initiative for advanced automotive communication system Automotive
manufacturers BMW and DaimlerChrysler, and semiconductor manufacturers
Motorola and Philips Semiconductors, today announce their intention to form an
industry consortium to drive forward the development and implementation of an
advanced automotive communication system named FlexRay.  Aimed to be a
standard for innovative high-speed control applications in the car, such as
x-by-wire, FlexRay technology is expected to be available for everybody in the
worldwide market.
    The FlexRay consortium is coming together in response to changing industry
needs.  Future automotive applications demand high-speed bus systems that are
both deterministic and fault-tolerant, capable of supporting distributed
control systems.  FlexRay technology is designed to meet these requirements,
complementing major in-vehicle networking standards CAN, LIN, and MOST.
    The unique combined expertise of the 4 development companies in embedded
real time systems design and implementation, which will significantly reduce
development time, helps to enable the realisation of a global standard
specifically designed for advanced automotive control applications.  Hence
FlexRay standardisation is expected cut costs in development and production as
well as reduce risks involved in introducing this innovative technology, which
should then allow a widespread use of the innovative system in the market.
    According to the specifications set in close co-operation by BMW and
DaimlerChrysler, Motorola and Philips Semiconductors intend to develop the
silicon solutions for the key devices, the data link layer and the physical
layer respectively.
    As a scalable communication system, FlexRay is designed to allows
synchronous and asynchronous gross data transmission at high-speed data rates
up to 10Mbit/sec.Data transmission is deterministic, with message latency and
message jitter being guaranteed.  The innovative technology will support
redundancy and a fault-tolerant clock synchronisation for a global time base.
Fast error detection and signalling is another basic feature, while an
independent bus guardian contributes towards error containment on the physical
layer.

    Further information on FlexRay is available at
http://www.flexray-group.com

    For further information, please contact:  Jim Trent (US), Motorola, AVSD,
Tel: +1 512-895-2077, R13369@email.sps.mot.com, or Gary Hay (Europe),
Motorola, AVSD, Tel: + 44 1355355155, TTZ766@email.sps.mot.com.