Patent ID: 7797099

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling rotation of an engine mounted on a vehicle, the engine being equipped with a crankshaft, comprising: updating means for updating a count of a counter based on a signal changing in accordance with rotation of the crankshaft, the count indicating a rotational position of the crankshaft; and engine control means for controlling the rotation of the engine based on the count of the counter, the engine control means includes idle stop control means issuing a request to stop the rotation of the engine when it is determined that a condition for stopping the rotation of the engine is met, and then issuing a command to crank the engine for restarting the engine when it is determined that a condition for restarting the engine is met; and update prohibiting means for prohibiting the counter from being updated during a period of time ranging from a time instant when the engine stops from rotating in response to the request to stop to a time instant when it is determined that the condition for restarting the engine is met.