Abstract: An electronic control unit (ECU) includes a central processing unit (CPU), a non-volatile memory bank, a volatile memory bank and a state machine. The state machine is in communication with the CPU and functions to selectively capture information available on an internal bus of the CPU on a cycle-by-cycle basis and store the captured information in the volatile memory, which is also coupled to the CPU.

Abstract: An improved method of operation for a motor vehicle microcontroller uses flash memory (FM) for storing generic data and emulating an EE memory device. The FM is divided into first and second banks, with the first bank being utilized for generic data and the second bank being utilized for EE data, allowing EE data to be updated while the microcontroller accesses stored generic data. The second bank is partitioned into sectors that are individually erasable, and EE data is updated by storing the updated EE data into an unused sector, flagging the old sector to indicate that it contains invalid data, and later erasing the old sector to make it available for future updates of EE data.

Abstract: An electronic control unit (ECU) includes a central processing unit (CPU), a non-volatile memory bank, a volatile memory bank and a state machine. The state machine is in communication with the CPU and functions to selectively capture information available on an internal bus of the CPU on a cycle-by-cycle basis and store the captured information in the volatile memory, which is also coupled to the CPU.