Cars are getting more and more complicated. Modern cars may have -as much as-(many?!) 50 microprocessors on them. Although these microprocessors make it more difficult (for you to repair your own car, some of them actually make your car easier to service.
Controlling the engine is the -most processor-demanding- job on your car, and the engine control unit (ECU) is the most powerful computer on many cars.
The ECU gathers data from dozens of different sensors and performs millions of calculations each second to ensure the lowest emissions and best (beste) mileage.
A modern ECU might contain a 32-bit, 40-MHz processor. This may not sound fast compared to the 2 to 3 GHz processor you probably have in your PC, but remember that the processor in your car is running much more efficient code than the one in your PC.
The code in an average ECU takes up less than 1 megabyte (MB) of memory.
Signal conditioners are used to adjust signals for inputs and outputs. They can multiply voltages, which allows the A/D converter to read them -more accurate- providing better meter reading results.
The communication standard CAN allows for transmission speeds of up to 500 kilobits per second (Kbps). That's -much faster than- standards.
Having communication standards has made designing and building cars a bit easier.
Clusters are now being used on a smaller scale for sensors.
One advantage of the smart sensor is that the digital signal travelling over the communications bus is less susceptible to electrical noise.
This is much more efficient than running wires from every switch and sensor to the part it controls.
In the future, we will have all kinds of new convenience features in our cars, and each of these requires more electronics modules containing multiple microprocessors.