Your car is full of processors

To these processors arrive a lot of information from different sensors that measure the speed, position, temperature and pressure of different components. With this information, the embedded processors perform certain calculations to get a result in real time. The term "real time", means that the processors will activate the airbag, ABS, will modify the quantity of air that enters to the motor or any other thing, before it be too late.

Here we have a list of the components with that the embedded processors often interact in a car:

• MSR: prevents loss of steering control due to slippage of the driving wheels when the engine revolutions are increased.
• ABS: Anti-lock Braking Systems
• EDS: Electronic Data Systems
• ASR: Automotive shredder residue
• TSC: Traction control system.
• ESC/ESP: Electronic Stability Control
• The central door locking with the remote control.
• Alarm
• The chips called DSP (Digital Signal Processor) that process the signals of the sensors.

The embedded processors, doesn't need to be more powerful than the PC processors because are processors of specific purpose, and how already I explained in other post, something that is programmed directly in the hardware it's going to work always much faster. So, isn't recommended that these be more powerfull than the needed to accomplish their function, because this would affect negatively to the fabrication cost, the size and the consumption.

More and more parts of the car are controlled by processors instead of by mechanical elements. This makes cheaper the cost of production, improve the consumption and the security of the vehicle. The bad part is that when one of this parts fails only we will can be repaired it if we get an official replacement, that implies spending a lot of more in maintenance.