Patent ID: 7684926

Claim:
An electronic control apparatus comprising a first microcomputer coupled to an external apparatus via an external communication line and a second microcomputer coupled to said first microcomputer via an internal communication line, each of said first microcomputer and second microcomputer comprising an internally disposed rewritable type of non-volatile memory, said first microcomputer comprising a first communication circuit connected to said external communication line and to said internal communication line, and said second microcomputer comprising a second communication circuit connected to said internal communication line, each of said first microcomputer and second microcomputer performing processing based upon data stored in said non-volatile memory thereof, and said first microcomputer and second microcomputer being responsive to write-in data that are directed thereto, transmitted from said external apparatus and received via said first communication circuit, for writing said write-in data into said non-volatile memory thereof, to update said data stored in said non-volatile memory thereof; wherein: said first microcomputer further comprises a volatile memory and storage control circuitry configured to store, in said volatile memory, data that are directed to said second microcomputer and are received from said external apparatus via said external communication line, and data forwarding circuitry configured to read out said data from said volatile memory and transmit said data to said second microcomputer via said internal communication line at a rate determined in accordance with a data receiving performance of said second microcomputer; said second microcomputer receives said data transmitted by said data forwarding circuitry as write-in data, to be written into said non-volatile memory of said second microcomputer; and wherein said first microcomputer comprises acquisition circuitry configured to acquire, from said second microcomputer via said internal communication line, previously-written data that have been previously received by said second microcomputer and written into said non-volatile memory of said second microcomputer, and to acquire data corresponding to said previously-written data from said external apparatus, comparator circuitry configured to compare said previously-written data with said corresponding data, and comparison result notification circuitry configured to transmit notification information concerning results of said comparison performed by said comparator circuitry, to said external apparatus via said external communication line.