Design Experience

Silicon Engines is a design firm providing a full range of electronic engineering services.

Click on the links to the right for information on specific areas.

Automotive Electronics

We have worked on a variety of automotive electronic designs for multiple customers. We have done complete electronic control unit (ECU) designs for body control systems — electronic hardware design, PCB layout, embedded software, and test software. We have also worked as part of a customer's design team to do selected portions of a complete project — hardware or software.

We have experience with CAN, J1939, J1850 (Class 2), ISO-9141, ISO-14230, and LIN — all automotive data communications protocols.

We have designed automotive gas sensors, seat modules, mirror modules, door modules, sunroof controllers, convertible top controllers, and similar ECUs. Silicon Engines has also delivered production runs of custom automotive modules.

For over six years we have designed and delivered complex engine simulator test fixtures. These simulators generate signals equivalent to all the sensors that an engine or transmission control ECU will see in-vehicle — including potentiometers (analog level), variable reluctance sensors (bipolar pulse), and Hall-effect sensors (square wave).

Data Communications

Silicon Engines has worked with a wide variety of data communications interfaces. These include both asynchronous and synchronous protocols found in automotive, industrial, and office environments.

We're familiar with RS-232, RS-485, ISO-9141, ISO-14230, CAN, J1850, and LIN. We've worked with USB, both on the embedded side, and in the PC environment. We've worked with analog and DSP-based modems, and have experience with facsimile transmission using V.29, V.21, and CCITT fax protocols.

We have detailed working knowledge of error detection and correction protocols. Our engineers can use 8, 16, and 32-bit CRCs (cyclical redundancy checks) to validate message delivery.

We have experience with FEC (forward error correction) technology, whereby redundant information is sent within a message, coded in such a way that bit errors will be detected and corrected without the need for retransmission. We've worked with Golay, Reed-Solomon, and Viterbi FEC algorithms.

Silicon Engines has utilized lossless data compression and encryption techniques for optimizing the throughput of data communications channels, and making them secure.

Industrial Controls

Silicon Engines designs and manufactures custom controls for specialized industrial applications. These systems are typically microcontroller-based products with custom hardware and software. They employ closed-loop control and distributed processing techniques to automate a system.