Patent ID: 6915192
Filing Date: 2005-07-05
Classification: B60G,B60W,F02D

Abstract:
1. A vehicular electronic control apparatus comprising a nonvolatile program memory in which at least a control program suitable for a vehicle to be controlled is stored, a nonvolatile data memory in which at least variable control data are stored, a RAM for arithmetic processing, and a microprocessor connected to the nonvolatile program memory, the nonvolatile data memory and the RAM, for controlling vehicle electric loads on the basis of input signals from vehicle sensors, the control program stored in the nonvolatile program memory, and the variable control data stored in the nonvolatile data memory, the vehicular electronic control apparatus further comprising a reference data storage memory, data memory abnormality judgment means for the nonvolatile data memory, and a first and second transfer means for the RAM, wherein the reference data storage memory comprises an electrically writable nonvolatile memory in which reference data corresponding to the variable control data stored in the nonvolatile data memory are stored, the data memory abnormality judging means is constructed to judge whether the variable control data stored in the nonvolatile data memory are normal or abnormal; the first transfer means comprises means for transferring and writing the variable control data from the nonvolatile data memory to the RAM if the data memory abnormality judging means judges that the variable control data stored in the nonvolatile data memory are normal, the second transfer means comprises means for writing estimated variable control data based on the reference data from the reference data storage memory to the RAM if the data memory abnormality judging means judges that the variable control data stored in the nonvolatile data memory are abnormal, and the microprocessor controls the vehicle electric loads on the basis of one of the variable control data and the estimated variable control data that have been written to the RAM.