New FlexRay ECU transceivers for future VAG cars

[warren_cox]

http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publish/Industry_Tuner_News/article_5942.shtml

Quote from Fourtitude:

FlexRay is an automotive network communications protocol designed to be faster and more reliable than CAN or TTP. These transceivers provide the interface between the digital logic and the copper cable transmission. With transmission rates up to 10 Mbit/s, FlexRay provides 20 times the speed of unshielded twisted copper cable used in cars today.

Key features of the AS8221 FlexRay transceiver include a high common mode range to ensure excellent EMI, an interface for Bus Guardian or supervision circuits, automatic thermal shutdown protection, integrated power management, two inhibit pins for external voltage supply control, local wake-up input and remote wake-up capability. The AS8221 supports 12 and 24 V systems with very low sleep current and supports 2.5, 3, 3.3, and 5 V microcontrollers.

"The AS8221 FlexRay transceiver is attractive to automotive manufacturers such as Audi /Volkswagen since it provides system stability through its unmatched immunity," commented Harald Gall, Product Manager Automotive at austriamicrosystems. "We focused on minimizing the asymmetrical delay of the transceiver in order to solve one of the car makers' key challenges of providing a stable network."

Anyone know what this means for VAGCOM/VCDS? Likely to be superseded?

 

[AndrewJB]

Ross Tech will no doubt be already monitoring this situation and will be planning ahead

If they implement this then the dealers would still need a system to get in for Error Checking etc so no doubt an aftermarket version would be quickly on the market

 

[BeartheBruce]

We don't expect them to change the diagnostic communication technique. CAN will be the standard for diagnostics but they would appear to be moving to a new communications technique between the modules. But to your point about us watching, like "Angels in the Outfield", we're always watching.

 

[warren_cox]

We don't expect them to change the diagnostic communication technique. CAN will be the standard for diagnostics but they would appear to be moving to a new communications technique between the modules. But to your point about us watching, like "Angels in the Outfield", we're always watching.

Brilliant

With the quality of VAG UK dealer networks anything we can understand for ourselves is almost imperative.

I was thinking, 'typical, I've just bought an official cable after 20 years of VAG ownership and it will be obsolete in no time'!! Glad to hear it shouldn't be the case.