A comparison of LIN and TTP/A

The paper compares two novel field-bus protocols for low-cost single-chip smart sensor and actuator nodes, LIN and TTP/A. Both protocols are central-master UART protocols, where the master with its precise oscillator establishes the stable time-base required by the slaves to synchronize their imprecise on-chip oscillators. While LIN provides the basic services needed for real-time communication, the TTP/A standard additionally specifies an interface-file system to perform on-line configuration, diagnostics and maintenance of smart sensor nodes. With TTP/A it is thus possible to produce preprogrammed simple transducer nodes or generic smart transducer nodes that can be configured dynamically to the given application requirements.