OSEK/VDX history and structure

In May 1993 OSEK has been founded as a joint project in the German automotive industry aiming at an industry standard for an open-ended architecture for distributed control units in vehicles. OSEK is an abbreviation for the German term "Offene Systeme und deren Schnittstellen fur die Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug" (English "Open Systems and the Corresponding Interfaces for Automotive Electronics"). Initial project partners were BMW, Bosch, Daimler-Benz, Opel, Siemens, Volkswagen and the IIIT of the University of Karlsruhe as co-ordinator. The French car manufacturers Peugeot and Renault joined OSEK in 1994 introducing their VDX-approach (Vehicle Distributed eXecutive) which was a similar project within the French automotive industry. At the first workshop in October 1995 the OSEK/VDX group presented the results of the harmonised specifications between OSEK and VDX. The Steering Committee of the project consisting of the above mentioned initial partners is responsible for the overall project organisation (e.g. assignment of working group leaders), for granting of licenses to other companies and for the external representation of OSEK/VDX (e.g. publications). The Institute of Industrial Information Technology (University of Karlsruhe) as Project Co-ordinator organises, co-ordinates and works in all existing working groups.