eSOL license SEGGER's emCompress software

18th August 2021

eSOL

Kiera Sowery

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eSOL has licensed SEGGER's emCompress compression software to enable faster firmware updates in Electronic Control Units (ECUs) for automotive customers. emCompress aim to drastically reduce update times by offering solutions to compress data for all kinds of applications where size matters. Designed for embedded systems, emCompress can compress and decompress data even on the smallest microcontrollers. In the automotive industry, slow bus systems like CAN (Controller Area Network) are a common standard. To address the speed limitations imposed by the communication bus, the best option is to reduce the amount of data to be transferred. As the information in a firmware update needs to stay complete, compression is the logical choice.

emCompress supports the Lempel–Ziv–Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) to perform lossless data compression as well as other algorithms (e.g. LZMA2). Typical compression rates for firmware images range from two to four, reducing the update time between 50% and 75%. The decompression algorithm also supports files that were created by PC-based tools such as '7-ZIP' or 'Lzip' which use LZMA as well.

“Thanks to the highly effective implementation of the state-of-the-art compression algorithms in SEGGER's emCompress, we can significantly speed up ECU firmware updates to the delight of our customers,” said Bob N. Ueyama, Executive Vice President of eSOL. “Time spent in the garage for a firmware update now can be reduced to an absolute minimum.”

“While the firmware of automotive ECUs is getting more and more comprehensive with each vehicle generation, updates in the garage are very often still done using existing tools for the CAN-bus,” explained SEGGER CEO Ivo Geilenbruegge. “We are very pleased to see that our emCompress is a key component for eSOL to drastically reduce their update times.”

The emCompress software is written in well-commented ANSI C and is both compiler and target independent. emCompress is not covered by an open-source or required-attribution license and can be integrated into any commercial or proprietary product, without the obligation to attribute the vendor or disclose the combined source. In addition SEGGER supports the special needs of automotive customers, e.g. MISRA compliance and extensive regression tests, which makes emCompress an ideal solution for ECU firmware updates.