The Vector SDV (Software Defined Vehicle) Symposium Japan takes place on September 18. Among the talks and demos is a setup that uses VLAB together with Vector CANape to demonstrate application testing and calibration using the ASAM XCP protocol.

The setup looks like this:

The application under test is running as part of a full AUTOSAR (Classic) image on a Renesas RH850U2A-based virtual ECU (Electronic Control Unit). The same binary would run on a real ECU.

From the perspective of Vector CANape, it talks XCP to the virtual ECU just like it would talk to a real board with XCP on Ethernet. The XCP traffic is forwarded to the application using virtual ECU back-door access, facilitated by the VLAB XCP server functionality.

The VLAB XCP server receives XCP on Ethernet traffic and turns it into memory accesses to application-level buffers, providing a quick and efficient way to communicate with the application over XCP without involving the target operating system. There is no need for an XCP server in the target software, or to configure networking to the virtual ECU or connect it to the host network. This simplifies the setup and makes automation easier.