ECU: Engine Control Unit

Howstuffworks points out that the ECU in most cars is only 40-50MHz. Since we do plan to add quite a bit more functionality, I think we should go with something faster - though preferably something low-power that stays pretty cool. In fact, we may want to consider having more than one CPU so that it can fail-over if need be.

Newer cars use the CAN (controller-area networking) at up to 500Kbps. These modules might send data over the two wires hundreds of times per second. Maybe we should use something newer. Maybe a multicast approach would allow modules (like HUD/dash modules) to auto-respond to what the other modules are reporting.

Maybe we should start with Open Cores, Open SPARC, or something similar. In fact, an OpenBIOS and OpenBoot/OpenFirmware approach could be very interesting when most of the devices are car modules.