Patent ID: 7337060

Claim:
A control unit for controlling operation of an internal combustion engine of a first type according to a state machine which defines a plurality of different operating states for the internal combustion engine of the first type and permitted transitions among the plurality of different operating states, comprising: a means for grouping the plurality of different operating states into a plurality of differently-ranked hierarchical layers of the state machine, wherein for at least a first hierarchical layer, at least a second hierarchical layer that includes at least one sub-state of an operating state associated with the first hierarchical layer is subordinated to the first hierarchical layer; and a means for operating the internal combustion engine of the first type according to at least one of the plurality of different operating states; wherein the first hierarchical layer and all additional hierarchical layers superordinated to the first hierarchical layer represent operating states which the internal combustion engine of the first type has in common with an internal combustion engine of a different type, and wherein the second hierarchical layer and all additional hierarchical layers subordinated to the second hierarchical layer represent operating states which are specific to the internal combustion engine of the first type.