Patent ID: 6928346

Claim:
A method for monitoring a functioning of a control unit for activating output stages in a motor vehicle, the control unit including a main computing element having at least one microprocessor, and at least one auxiliary computing element having at least one microprocessor, the main computing element and the at least one auxiliary computing element having access to a common memory element, comprising: writing a preselected value as a content of a specified memory location of the common memory element by the main computing element; performing a query of the content of the specified memory location of the common memory element, during operation of the control unit, by the at least one auxiliary computing element at preselected times; and the at least one auxiliary computing element determining that there is a malfunction of the main computing element if the specified memory location of the common memory element does not contain the pre-selected value or if the specified memory location of the common memory element does not contain the pre-selected value at the pre-selected time.