The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 07, 1981
Filed:
Oct. 18, 1978
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An electronic control apparatus includes a digital processor which receives data from sensors indicating conditions of the engine and supplies output control data for operating various actuators which control the engine operation. The interfacing of data between the sensors, the digital processor and the actuators is effected through a set of registers and a controlled incrementing device. The set of registers includes a plurality of reference registers which store engine control data supplied from the digital processor. Another set of registers store respective sets of codes the values of which are sequentially and selectively incremented in accordance with a prescribed timing signal pattern during the rotation of the engine crankshaft. The data in these respective registers are compared with one another and upon the contents of a register, the contents of which are incremented by the timing signal pattern reaching the value stored in the reference register the data contained in which is supplied from the digital processor, an output is supplied to operate a respective engine actuator. Since the data supplied by the digital processor may vary at any time depending upon operating conditions, which are supplied by the digital processor, are not fixed but are subject to variation. If, at the time the digital processor is modifying or changing, namely updating, the data contained in a reference register, the value in a corresponding one of the second set of registers becomes equal to the old data with which it has been compared, no output signal is permitted to be supplied to an engine actuator until after the new data supplied by the digital processor has been input to the appropriate reference register. This preventing or inhibiting action enables the system to control the engine actuators in an extremely accurate manner, as the reference data upon which actuator control signals are ultimately based is always permitted to be dynamically updated so that the engine is always controlled on the basis of current engine conditions.