The first automotive bus with a Linux based design is out!

Germany based Technische Universität München (TUM) is unveiling a two-tier automotive service bus for car computers. This service will be available on a control unit running Linux on a PandaBoard. It is based on the Java based Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi).

Technische Universität München (TUM) has open-sourced an automotive computer bus design developed as part of its ‘Visio.M’ (Visionary Mobility) electric car project. The automotive service bus is designed to handle today’s increasingly computerised cars, which often involve up to 80 different electronic systems.

The system is controlled by a crossplatform central control unit built by IAV. A separate, Web-enabled control unit responsible for driver and Internet communications interacts wirelessly with a touchscreen, which in the case of the Visio.M, is an Apple iPad.

Visio.M’s OSGi hardware platform is based on a hardware design that runs Linux on an open-spec PandaBoard, which in turn is equipped with a Texas Instruments 1GHz, dual-core, Cortex-A9 OMAP4430 system-on-chip.

Although the bus uses a typical CAN network, it breaks away from traditional automotive bus designs, which are based on 100-year old technology. The new bus architecture resembles that of dual-layer smartphone architecture, securely isolating driving and safety functions from communications and Internet functions. All connected firmware components can be updated, appended or deleted over the Internet.

The two-seat Visio.M has a range of 160km, and the 15kW motor supports a maximum speed of 120km/h. The lightweight car is powered by a 13.5kWh Li-Ion battery, which can be recharged in under four hours. The battery weighs 85kg, compared to 450kg for the car (without the battery).