FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13 May 2014
Press Contact:
Dorothee Bassermann
Email: dorothee.bassermann@asam.net
Phone: +49 8102 8061-63
www.asam.net
Press Release
ASAM Expands its Business Activities towards Professionally
Developed Open-Source Software with ASAM XIL 2.0
Hoehenkirchen, Germany, May 13, 2014 - ASAM (Association for Standardization of
Automation and Measuring Systems) releases for the first time a standard together with
professionally-developed open-source software in one package. This marks the
beginning of a new venture where ASAM expands its activities towards open-source
software. The released standard ASAM XIL 2.0 describes a vendor-independent interface
between test automation tools and test benches. The included source code provides an
implementation of a significant amount of interface functions, which are considered noncompetitive. The standard package is now ready for download. Users who integrate the
software into their products will significantly save development costs and ensure a high
degree of standard compliance of their products.
Open-source software has become increasingly popular in the B2B area in recent years. The
development work is typically carried out by a community of corporate volunteers. This model
saves cost but professional support is not always guaranteed, quality of the developed software
varies and documentation is typically of lesser concern.
With ASAM XIL V2.0, ASAM refines this model by offering open-source software without
jeopardizing quality and professional support: ASAM contracts out the software development to
a professional software firm, which also provides technical support to its users. Software quality
assurance is carried out by the firm according to industry standards and verified by the experts
of the standard development group. ASAM bears the costs and makes the software publicly
available together with the standard. The standard serves as comprehensive documentation for
the API. Simon Preis, Executive Director of ASAM e.V. states: “Offering open-source software
creates substantial savings for our members and the users of our standard. Our concept for
open-source makes sure that the software is kept stable and synchronized with the standard
over a long period of time. All this secures the investment that users make when integrating the
software into their products.” ASAM intends to further pursue this concept of professionally
developed open-source software for other standards in the future.
The ASAM XIL standard decouples test automation tools and test benches through setting an
API standard, which allows users to select tools and test hardware from different vendors
without major system integration efforts. This is achieved through a sophisticated API that
ASAM e.V.
Altlaufstr. 40 ∙ 85635 Höhenkirchen ∙ Germany
Tel: +49 8102 8061-60 ∙ Fax: +49 8102 8061-68
www.asam.net ∙ info@asam.net
Board of Directors:
Hams-Georg Swolana ∙ BMW AG Chairman
Raghavendra Kulkarni ∙ RBEI India (Robert Bosch GmbH)
Christoph Niessen ∙ Detroit Diesel Corp.
Prof. Dr. Marcus Rieker ∙ HORIBA Europe GmbH
Geschäftsführer / Executive Director:
Simon Preis
Registered Association:
München – VR 16429
VAT Identification No.: DE 201 282 629
provides port-based communication to the simulation model, ECU data (parameters, variables
and diagnostics), electrical error simulation and the ECU network. The API is capable to map
and convert different physical dimensions, units and data types of signals within a XIL-system,
so that tests can be reused without major migration efforts.
The standard comes with a C# source code library, which contains open-source software that
can be used by tool vendors to implement the ASAM XIL API. It covers 484 methods of the
standard API, mostly methods that are not hardware-dependent and are considered as noncompetitive by tool-vendors. Provided methods are data access functions, unit and data type
conversion, reading mapping files, mathematical operations and more.
The source code consists of 8662 lines of code and has been professionally developed by M&K
GmbH under the supervision of ASAM and the standard development group. The source code
constitutes a standard-compliant implementation of the API. Members of ASAM can download
the standard with the source code and integrate it into their products and projects. Nonmembers may purchase the standard. In both cases, the use of software is royalty-free.
For more questions on this topic, please contact info@asam.net.
About XIL-Systems
XIL-systems provide a simulated, external environment for the unit under test. They are typically
used in the automotive industry to test controllers in the loop with the controlled system. Most
frequent implementations of XIL-systems are HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop), which allow to test
ECUs in a simulated environment in real-time. Other implementations of XIL-systems are PIL
(Processor-in-the-Loop), SIL (Software-in-the-Loop) and MIL (Model-in-the-Loop).
Main contributors to the standard are (in alphabetical order):
AUDI AG, AVL List GmbH, Berner & Mattner Systemtechnik GmbH, BMW AG, Robert Bosch
GmbH, Continental Automotive GmbH , D2T, Daimler AG, dSPACE GmbH, ETAS GmbH,
HORIBA Automotive Test Systems GmbH, M&K Mess- und Kommunikationstechnik GmbH,
MBtech Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, National Instrument Corporation, RA-Consulting GmbH,
Softing Automotive Electronics GmbH, TraceTronic GmbH, Vector Informatik GmbH.
About ASAM e.V.
ASAM e.V. coordinates the development of technical standards. These standards define
protocols, data models, file formats and application programming interfaces (APIs) for the use in
the development and testing of automotive electronic control units. A large amount of popular
tools in the areas of simulation, measurement, calibration and test automation are compliant to
ASAM standards. Compliance shall guarantee interoperability of tools from different vendors,
allow data exchange without the need for converters, and facilitate the exchange of
unambiguous specification between customers and suppliers.
ASAM e.V.
Altlaufstr. 40 ∙ 85635 Höhenkirchen ∙ Germany
Tel: +49 8102 8061-60 ∙ Fax: +49 8102 8061-68
www.asam.net ∙ info@asam.net
Board of Directors:
Hams-Georg Swolana ∙ BMW AG Chairman
Raghavendra Kulkarni ∙ RBEI India (Robert Bosch GmbH)
Christoph Niessen ∙ Detroit Diesel Corp.
Prof. Dr. Marcus Rieker ∙ HORIBA Europe GmbH
Geschäftsführer / Executive Director:
Simon Preis
Registered Association:
München – VR 16429
VAT Identification No.: DE 201 282 629
Founded in 1998 as a German association, ASAM has today more than 140 international
members, including major OEMs in Germany, France, US, Japan, and China. ASAM has a
portfolio of 22 standards among them the well established MCD (measuring, calibration,
diagnostics)-standards with a market distribution of up to 80% worldwide. The infrastructural
standards of ASAM are used by many of the big international OEMs.
Den Text dieser Presse Mitteilung können sie unter http://www.asam.net/home/newsmedia/press-releases.html herunterladen.
Contact:
Dorothée Bassermann
ASAM e.V.
Altlaufstr. 40
85635 Höhenkirchen
Tel:
Fax:
+49 8102 806163
+49 8102 806168
Email: dorothee.bassermann@asam.net
Web: www.asam.net
ASAM e.V.
Altlaufstr. 40 ∙ 85635 Höhenkirchen ∙ Germany
Tel: +49 8102 8061-60 ∙ Fax: +49 8102 8061-68
www.asam.net ∙ info@asam.net
Board of Directors:
Hams-Georg Swolana ∙ BMW AG Chairman
Raghavendra Kulkarni ∙ RBEI India (Robert Bosch GmbH)
Christoph Niessen ∙ Detroit Diesel Corp.
Prof. Dr. Marcus Rieker ∙ HORIBA Europe GmbH
Geschäftsführer / Executive Director:
Simon Preis
Registered Association:
München – VR 16429
VAT Identification No.: DE 201 282 629