Understanding-Automotive

A system is a collection of components that function together to perform a specific task. Various systems are encountered in everyday life. It is common practice to refer to the bones of the human body as the skeletal system. The collection of highways linking the country’s population centers is known as the interstate freeway system.

Any electronic system can be described at various levels of abstraction, from a pictorial description or a schematic drawing at the lowest level to a block diagram at the highest level. For the purposes of this chapter, this higher-level abstraction is preferable. At this level, each functional subsystem is characterized by inputs, outputs, and the relationship between input and output. Normally, only the system designer or maintenance technician would be concerned with detailed schematics and the internal workings of the system. Furthermore, the

In the performance analysis of an existing system or in the design of a new one, the system or subsystem is represented by a mathematical model that is derived from its physical configuration. Normally, this model is derived from known models of each of its constituent parts, i.e., its basic physics. Initially, this chapter will consider components, subsystems, and system blocks that can be represented by a linear mathematical model. Later in the chapter, the treatment of nonlinearities is discussed.