AVL DiTEST GmbH

AVL DiTEST, based in Graz (Austria), has been successfully offering automotive diagnostic and measurement solutions for the automotive after-sales sector worldwide for 20 years and is considered a pioneer in its field. Approximately 280 employees ensure AVL DiTEST's status as a technology leader and reliable partner for automotive workshops and automotive test centres. For the industrialization of embedded systems for its products AVL DiTEST relied on the cooperation with Ginzinger electronic systems.

The spectrum of AVL DiTEST ranges from exhaust gas measurement for gasoline and diesel engines, air conditioning service, measurement technology for the automotive sector to automotive diagnostic systems and high voltage measurement technology units for e-mobility. Independent garages (e.g. ADAC or ÖAMTC) as well as authorized garages of well-known vehicle manufacturers rely on AVL DiTEST devices.

As EMS service provider (Electronics Manufacturing Services) Ginzinger produces various electronic assemblies for AVL DiTEST products for exhaust gas measurement. The development of the devices is done at AVL DiTEST, where embedded platforms have been used for several years for their own devices and where the same philosophy is followed - fully integrated platforms with Linux as operating system. In 2016 the relationship between both companies intensified.

The market launch of a new product was imminent. Since troubleshooting at AVL DiTEST did not yield the desired result, the company decided to call in external consultants. It was obvious for AVL DiTEST to seek advice from Ginzinger.

In summer 2016 Ginzinger electronic systems started Linux consulting for AVL DiTEST. They started with the evaluation of the Linux system. In the course of a joint analysis it soon turned out that the problems lay in the depths of the operating system of the Linux kernel. The Ginzinger project team was able to discover and isolate the error. The cause was the driver for a coprocessor of the used TI core. Thus the system became unstable and very sluggish. By means of a bugfix the cause of the error could be permanently eliminated.

Since Ginzinger has three decades of hardware expertise, the embedded Linux specialist was called in again at a later date to provide advice. It was about a hardware problem of the touch display of another AVL DiTEST product. This product was already established on the market. After some tests and measurements in the hardware development team the cause could be found. By optimizing a software driver it was possible to ensure the stability of the resistive touch during operation. This is a nice example of how software can be used to get hardware running (again).

The joint project resulted in a close cooperation between AVL DiTEST and Ginzinger electronic systems. The combined expertise enabled AVL DiTEST to develop robust, stable and durable customer devices and to bring them successfully to market.