Microsoft gets exclusive Formula 1 contract | The Coffeehouse

Escamillo

Bridgestone, Microsoft Get Exclusive F1 Contracts

speedtv.com wrote:
Bridgestone and Microsoft have been granted exclusive contracts to be the sole suppliers, of tires and ECUs respectively, of Formula 1 beginning in 2008.

The announcement was made following this Wednesday's meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris.

The move to a single tire supplier and standardized ECUs (Electronic Control Units, responsible for a car's engine management) is part of the FIA's radical cost-saving package announced earlier this year for introduction in '08. Both Bridgestone and Microsoft will supply F1 through 2010.

Anyone know anything about Microsoft's ECUs? I wonder what OS they run, XP Embedded or WinCE?

littleguru
<3 Seattle

Nice! Very nice. Hopefully Windows CE and not XP embedded. Isn't Windows CE the only Microsoft's real time OS?

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

littleguru wrote:
Nice! Very nice. Hopefully Windows CE and not XP embedded. Isn't Windows CE the only Microsoft's real time OS?

"real time" is aribtrary, it just means it can respond fast enough. Shove Windows XP on a fast enough machine and you can call it "real time".

I get the feeling they'll use Windows Automotive or something.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

W3bbo wrote:
"real time" is aribtrary

No it is not. A real time OS means that it can guarantee a response within a certain time. XP cannot do that because it applies fair scheduling, and even at the highest priority level a process cannot be certain it won't be interrupted thus throwing the timing off.

Real time OSs have nothing to do with speed.

AndyC

It appears your F1 car is not genuine. Would you like to activate it now?

Jason Cox
Longtime C9 Lurker

AndyC wrote:
It appears your F1 car is not genuine. Would you like to activate it now?

The bad news is that it'll still crash due to bad drivers.
Big Smile

Detroit Muscle
Wii!

W3bbo wrote:
"real time" is aribtrary, it just means it can respond fast enough. Shove Windows XP on a fast enough machine and you can call it "real time".

Um, no. Stop spreading ignorance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTOS

Detroit Muscle
Wii!

Escamillo wrote:
I wonder what OS they run, XP Embedded or WinCE?

MS OSs aren't a player in the automotive ECU market. The vast majority of ECUs don't run an OS.

In fact, 50% of ECUs are built around 8-bit MCUs. I am not aware of any 8 bit MS OSs.

Tensor
Im in yr house upgrading yr family

This is odd. I follow F1 quite a lot and I have not been aware of MS having anything at all to do with ECUs. In fact, all the teams pretty much make there own. A standard ECU is a good idea as the limits placed on ECUs have proved problematic in the past, but you have to imagine MS will be buying in outside knowledge on this one.

On the other hand I am aware of several f1 teams using .NET for other roles within the team.

AndyC

I seem to recall that the idea was first mooted when traction control was banned. A certain team (possibly Italian, possibly red cars) was heavily suggesting that the Renaults were able to get away from the line so fast because they had something not dissimilar to traction control during the launch control sequence, but nobody could prove it one way or the other without Renault revealing all their trade secrets.

TC was allowed back the next season and the Renaults still flew off the line faster than anyone, so pretty much dispelling the theory they were cheating. I guess the notion that the FIA should be able to know what goes on inside the little black box stayed though.

Quite why Microsoft won the contract, I don't know. I suppose it is as good a way as any to prove you are serious about the automotive industry!

die-Sel

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=36548

bit more on itv f1, Microsoft MES?

Tensor
Im in yr house upgrading yr family

Ferrari were found to have effectively got traction control, by exploiting the amount of time allowed for gear changes, while traction control was banned.

Basicly there was a time period allowed for the computer to control the engine during gear changes, but ferrari managed to get the change time down to a tiny fraction of the time allowed, and used the rest of the time for what was effectively traction control.

It was not actually against the rules and is the kind of thing that happens in F1 all the time - you find a gap in the rules, you exploit it to death until it is plugged. A single supplier of ECUs gets around this and it has been on the cards for some time - its just odd its Microsoft.