Bandwidth, Bandwidth, Bandwidth

摘要

To reduce complexity and prepare for the onslaught of more electronic features, automotive engineers are looking at faster, more efficient electrical architectures. It's a hydraulics term, only remotely associated with the likes of microprocessors and software. But over the next ten years, "pipe flow" is going to be transformed into an electronics term, as automakers face a computing dilemma that will dwarf anything in the history of the desktop world. Their challenge, in essence, is to push tens of millions of bits of data per second down an electronic pipe, allowing scores of microprocessors to "talk" to each other, enabling flawless operation of brakes, throttles, radios, CD players, door locks, window lifts, engines, transmissions, seat motors, heaters, air conditioners, windshield wipers, airbags, cell phones, steering wheels, and countless other items, so that not one life is ever lost because a data packet got hung up somewhere, causing the brakes to fail.