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Which is more complex - car or an operating system?
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JPortici:

--- Quote from: james_s on June 02, 2020, 09:14:56 pm ---It seems crazy that modern ECUs would have a 256MB ROM, the ECU in my car has a 4K ROM.

--- End quote ---

Well, this is what you have in mid/higher end cars since about 2017 (Class A, Class C, A4, A6, A7, A8 i think also Series5, Series 7)
https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/landing-page/stellar-32-bit-automotive-mcus.html?icmp=tt10612_gl_pron_feb2019
absolutely crazy.

I don't remember the bosch code for the ECU but it is also CRAZY big with about 250-300 pin connectors. You could see it open at ST's stand 2 years ago at embedded world, i have the photo somewhere..

[OT] I also agree with you on modern cars - in part. I'm 100% happy with my current 2014 skoda octavia. Good engine, manual gear, KNOBS AND BUTTONS instead of a stupid touchscreen. It lacks LED lights -and no approved conversion kit -  :(  and i kind of wish i had an android auto radio but nog going to spend 2k for that

The best balance in electronics in cars was around 2015 IMHO. The only new car i would get today would be (again) a Fiat, Alfa or a Jeep, they are the only ones i still feel like i am the one who's driving. In many other brands i find the elecronics to be too intrusive. And fiat's is the best infotainment IMHO
Maybe i'll change the idea when the all touchscreen fad will go away.. no more than four years i think?[/OT]
Rerouter:
Trucks and buses tend to have the stupidly large ROM images. As they bake in a lot of optional extras. Including things like blackbox features that have data going back to the last service.
MK14:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on June 02, 2020, 10:39:50 pm ---90s is arbitrary; Xerox Alto was 70s
...
...
I don't know that there was a comparable breakthrough in ICE design

--- End quote ---

The thing is, you seem to be referring to the years, when something was first invented. But first inventing something and/or demoing a (potentially very) simplistic version of it. Is not the same as being able to (economically), go to mass market with it.

E.g. Take the humble transistor.

The original (1947+) ones, were hand-made, (I'm not an expert on Ge transistors, so could easily be mistaken) Germanium (which didn't seem to make the best of transistors), too expensive (1947+), not really mass-produced (in a big way). Relatively unreliable (1947+), subject to significant thermal runaway problems. Not suitable for higher voltages, higher currents were tricky and max power dissipation was not brilliant (1947+).
They also couldn't cope with much temperature, and would exhibit considerable change in parameters, as the temperature changes.
So, many significant inventions in the transistor world, had to occur, such as Silicon, and various improvements to the manufacturability of them. Took place.
Then it took time for new 'transistorised' circuit designs to be made (developed/invented).
Finally, they had to displace (compete with), the existing valve/tube market players.

So, although technically speaking, the transistor was invented around 1947 (even that is not agreed by everyone, as there may have been other, relevant inventions, much earlier).
It took a number of decades, for them to become commonplace.
Perhaps (opinions can vary), from around 1970 (I know there was transistor items, especially radios in the 50s, and the 60s, had a number of transistorised items, hit the market) onwards, in most things. The transistors really took off.

One could perhaps argue, it took the invention of the integrated circuit, to see transistors really succeed.

I.e. As regards the windows like OS. (Xerox Alto etc). I doubt it was ready in that form to hit the mass market. Affordable, reasonably powerful computers needed to be invented (especially cpus, graphics and memory).
Hard/floppy disks needed to be improved, and made cheaper/smaller.
Then the entire windows eco-system, had to be created, along with a number of key software applications.
That would have taken quite some time.

So, yes. In e.g. 70s, you could have seen a DEMO of something windows like. It was NOT a product, that could have been released in e.g. 1971.
1971 = Memory prices HUGE, just for 1K of semiconductor ram (dram I think).
1971 = 4 bit, 100,000 instructions per second, max memory space 4K, Intel 4004 cpu. (I'm sure windows 10 could fit inside 4K of address space, with a tiny bit of optimisation. N.B. I'm never sarcastic).
1971 = Looking at Mainframe, higher capacity (but still small by today's standards), hard disks. They were huge items, the size of washing machines. Presumably cost millions of dollars. I.e. not really ready to hit the mass market.

tl;dr
Post getting too long. Although 90s is arbitrary, it probably wasn't viable for it to be that much sooner, than it was. E.g. 1971, as shown above. As the stuff wasn't available then and/or was too expensive for the mass market.
newbrain:

--- Quote from: themadhippy on June 02, 2020, 05:14:16 pm ---from a long time ago

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.

13. You would press the ‘start’ button to shut off the engine.

--- End quote ---
About point 1:

In the meantime, I had 2 car failures.

About 13: that's exactly what I do on my car (and have been doing for 15 years...).
SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: newbrain on June 03, 2020, 02:10:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: themadhippy on June 02, 2020, 05:14:16 pm ---from a long time ago

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.

13. You would press the ‘start’ button to shut off the engine.

--- End quote ---

About 13: that's exactly what I do on my car (and have been doing for 15 years...).

--- End quote ---

Well, on mine too.
And on cars that don't have Start/stop buttons, but just an ignition key, starting and stopping the engine is also done actioning the same key. What's the problem?
Oh, and most ON/OFF buttons on most devices also combine switching it on and... off.

I've always found this one "argument" (very popular silly nitpick about the Windows Start button for like ever) completely off. The Start "button" in Windows gave access to the "Start" menu - from which you could pretty much control the whole computer, including switching it off. It's a rather consistent approach. The "start" button in Windows was never meant to "start" the computer itself anyway (how could it), but to act as a "starting point" for most tasks. Anyway.

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