The Embedded World tradeshow is an early indicator of the annual CAN business. It shows trends and new opportunities. On the CiA booth, NXP, STM, and Vector presented running CAN XL networks. But CAN XL was not the dominating topic of the exhibition. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity were the more attraction catching topics.

Nevertheless, there were news on CAN XL: Green Hills Software introduced RTOS (real-time operating system) software support for the Aurix MCU family by Infineon coming with CAN XL interfaces. Microsys launched an interface module with two CAN XL and 16 CAN FD ports based on an NXP microcontroller, currently available in engineering sample. Peak and DCD showed prototypes of their CAN XL core implementations. Both companies plan to come to the next CAN XL plugfest organized by CiA in Baden-Baden one day after the iCC conference. Cast exhibited the CAN XL IP core by Fraunhofer on its booth and reported a high interest in CAN XL associated with CANsec, which is still under development.

Most inquiries and discussions on the CiA booth were related to CAN FD, functional safety, and cybersecurity. CANopen FD was another frequently mentioned topic. In general, CiA had less leads compared with last year. But our members reported an increasing number of visitors with dedicated projects in mind. This means, the CAN business is still increasing and CiA expects growing CAN markets.

As usual, CiA had scheduled its regular general assembly in the same week as the Embedded World tradeshow. The CiA community re-elected its board of directors (Christian Schlegel as Business Director, Magnus Hell from Infineon as Technical Director, and Holger Zeltwanger as Managing Director). Elected members of the CiA Business Committee (BC) are Emotas, ESD, Microcontrol, Murata, and Vector. The CiA Technical Committee (TC) members are Bosch, Emotas, ESD, Kvaser, Microcontrol, and Murata. The CiA budget was accepted as proposed by the BC. The CiA general assembly also ratified the updated CiA rules and regulations, describing the tasks and duties of CiA groups. They are so to speak the rules of procedure.