Management of programming and memory space for an internal combustion engine control system
US6009372A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 1, 1997 |
| Grant date | Dec 28, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 1, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC F)Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
- CPC primaryF02D41/26
- WIPO fieldEngines, pumps, turbines
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
An internal combustion engine with an embedded control system is disclosed which includes a programmable controller operatively coupled to a nonvolatile memory and a volatile memory. The nonvolatile memory is loaded with programming instructions for the controller. In one embodiment, a portion of the programming instructions are provided in an unexecutable compressed format which are then selectively decompressed into an executable format by an executable routine loaded in another portion of the nonvolatile memory. In another aspect, a first loading program is executed by the controller to load data from external support equipment. This data includes a second loading routine. The downloaded data also includes a code substitution program which is executed to replace the first loading routine with the second loading routine.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.