ELECTRONIC CONTROL SYSTEM WITH MALFUNCTION MONITOR

An electronic control apparatus for a vehicle consists of a microcomputer and a monitor module. The microcomputer includes a vehicle-mounted actuator controller and a controller monitor. The controller monitor works to monitor the validity of a monitor subject associated with an operation of the actuator controller based on a value computed by the microcomputer and associated with the validity of the monitor subject and its expected value. The controller monitor monitors the malfunction of the actuator controller based on the validity of the monitor subject. The microcomputer outputs the computed value and the expected value to the monitor module. The monitor module monitors the malfunction of the controller monitor based on comparison between the computed value and the expected value. Specifically, the monitoring of the actuator controller and the monitoring of the controller monitor are performed simultaneously, thus resulting in greatly improved reliability in controlling a vehicle mounted actuator.