Patent ID: 8768681

Claim:
A simulation system for simulating a mechanism system controlled by a plurality of electronic control units operating at processing rates, the simulation system comprising: a memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory executing computer instructions provide a mechanism system simulator module; a plurality of electronic control unit emulator modules operating at a variety of processing rates electronically emulating the respective plurality of electronic control units, each thereby receiving an input signal with an input time and giving an output signal with an output time; a scheduler module receiving and storing the output signals with the times output time from each of the plurality of electronic control unit emulators, the schedule module configured to perform determining whether the output time received from a given electronic control unit emulator from the plurality of electronic control unit emulator modules is older than a previously recorded preceding time for the given electronic control unit emulator, in response to the output time received being older, sending to the given electronic control unit emulator a message with a broadcast time and repeating the determining step, and in response to time received not being older, updating a determinate time with a latest preceding time recorded and releasing output older than the determinate time in order to synchronize the release of the output from each of the electronic control unit emulators operating at a variety of processing rates to a system emulator.