Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Klaus Lindner

Josef Loibl

Eberhard De Wille

Thomas Eiting

Ludwig Lutz

A control unit that includes a processor having at least a first chip select output and a second chip select output. A signal provided by the first chip select output is activated during a normal operating mode of the control unit, and a signal provided by the second chip select output is activated during an application mode of the control unit. The control unit also includes a RAM memory having a chip select input for selecting the RAM memory and having a memory area for use as an application memory. A combination element electrically couples the signal provided by the first chip select output and the signal provided by the second chip select output to the chip select input of the RAM memory such that the signal provided by the first chip select output and the signal provided by the second chip select output do not have a perturbing effect on each other. The memory area for use as an application memory is available as the application memory when the signal provided by the second chip select output is activated during the application mode of the control unit. The new control unit enables the standard commercially available processor to be used to implement a specific application without requiring a specially designed processor and with a low hardware and software outlay and/or cost.

Motor vehicle control unit having a processor providing a first and second chip select for use in a first and second operating mode respectively

A method is described that can be used to apply mass-produced control units without special application tools. In this context, a data record that is to be applied from a first memory area of a flash memory is copied over to a second memory area of the flash memory. The data that are to be applied are updated in sections in a RAM and are then written back to the second memory area. The applied control data record is finally copied back to its original positions in the first memory area.

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Tegernheim, Germany

Klaus Lindner