Buick Regal Thinks Faster than You

How many times did you see a manufacturer present every little detail of a new car they make, in the hope that perhaps an extra wire in a circuit somewhere might make the difference at the end of the month, when the numbers are added and compared to the ones of the competitors? Often, right?

Now, for some reason, we can't recall a carmaker ever presenting the... processor of a car. Sure, it's important like hell and we bet that sometime in the future we'll choose our cars based on the size of the flash memory rather on the mileage, but still...

The processor is exactly what GM decided to advertise next when it comes to their Regal (actually, Opel's Insignia). 32-bit embedded processor, three megabytes of integrated flash memory, 300 kilobytes of calibration data, 128 MHz clock speed...

“The ECM’s microcontroller executes the commands such as when to inject fuel into the engine’s combustion chambers,” said Karla Wallace, GM senior manager, global powertrain electronics engineering.

“Three meg of flash memory and 128 MHz clock speed doesn’t sound like a lot in terms of computing power until you consider the environment these controllers have to live in.”

Do these numbers mean anything to you? We bet they don't. But, as the word goes, the devil is in the details. Theoretically, all of the above numbers point to a more responsive, faster, better engine for the car.

Practically, GM provided little figures to go with the attributes of the processor. They just said... it's fast. Some 125 million operations per second fast.