Abstract: A control method for an internal combustion engine includes storing at least one address of at least one address distributor of a variable external memory as memory contents of an address block of the variable external memory. Addresses of data are stored in at least one data block of the variable external memory associated with the at least one address distributor as memory contents of the at least one address distributor. An operating program and an initializing program are stored in a read-only memory of a microcomputer. All of the address distributors are read out from the external memory and stored in a working memory of the microcomputer at addresses determined by the operating program, through the use of the initializing program with the aid of the address block at the start of the control method. The data in each of the at least one data block are accessed through the associated address distributors stored in the working memory, through the use of the operating program.