XCPlite

What is XCP?

XCP is a measurement and parameter tuning (calibration) protocol commonly used in the automotive industry (ASAM standard). It provides real-time signal acquisition and parameter tuning over various transport protocols with minimal impact on the target system.

New to XCP? See the detailed XCP introduction or visit:

• Vector XCP Book
• Virtual VectorAcademy E-Learning

About XCPlite

XCPlite extends XCP use cases beyond traditional embedded microcontrollers to modern multicore microprocessors and SoCs running POSIX-compliant operating systems (Linux, QNX) or real-time operating systems (RTOS) such as ThreadX.

Designed exclusively for Ethernet transport (TCP/UDP with jumbo frames), XCPlite solves the challenges of measurement and calibration in systems with true parallelism and multithreading:

• Thread-safe & lock-free - Consistent data acquisition and parameter modification across multiple cores
• Memory-safe - Measure and calibrate variables in any storage location: stack, heap, thread-local, and global
• Runtime A2L generation - Define events, parameters, and metadata as code; A2L description file generated and uploaded automatically
• Complex type support - Handle basic types, structs, arrays, and nested structures
• Calibration segments - Page switching, consistent atomic modification, and parameter persistence (freeze)
• PTP timestamps - Prepared for high-precision synchronized timestamps

The API provides instrumentation macros for developers to define measurement points, calibration parameters, and meta data. Lock-free implementation ensures thread safety and data consistency without blocking latencies, even under high contention on multicore systems.

Optimized for 64-bit architectures, compatible with 32-bit platforms. Requires C11 (C++20 for C++ support). Serves as the C library foundation for XCP-Lite Rust.

Other XCP Implementations:

• XCPbasic - Free implementation for smaller Microcontrollers (8-bit+), optimized for CAN
• XCPprof - Commercial product in Vector's AUTOSAR MICROSAR and CANbedded portfolio

Getting Started

Examples

Multiple examples demonstrating different features are available in the examples folder.

Start here:

• hello_xcp - Basic XCP server setup and instrumentation in C
• hello_xcp_cpp - Basic instrumentation in C++

Advanced examples:

• c_demo - Complex data objects, calibration objects, and page switching
• struct_demo - Nested structs and multidimensional arrays
• multi_thread_demo - Multi-threaded measurement and parameter sharing
• cpp_demo - C++ class instrumentation and RAII wrappers
• no_a2l_demo - Workflow without runtime A2L generation (experimental)
• bpf_demo - Experimental syscall tracing (experimental)

For detailed information about each example and how to set up CANape projects, see the examples documentation.

Requirements:

XCPlite examples are designed to showcase advanced XCP capabilities and are tested with CANape 23+ (free demo version available). The examples leverage:

• Runtime A2L upload - No manual A2L file management required
• A2L TYPEDEFs - Complex data structures with reusable type definitions
• Address extensions - Support for relative addressing and multiple memory spaces
• Shared axis in typedefs - Advanced calibration structures (CANape 24+, see cpp_demo)

These features enable efficient workflows for modern multicore HPC applications. While XCPlite is XCP-compliant and works with any XCP tool, the examples take full advantage of CANape's support for dynamic systems and advanced A2L features.

Download: CANape demo version

Build

Linux/macOS:

./build.sh                  # Build all targets
# or
cmake -S . -B build && cmake --build build --target hello_xcp

Windows:

./build.bat                 # Creates Visual Studio solution
# or
cmake -S . -B build-msvc && cmake --build build-msvc --target hello_xcp

Note: Windows has some limitations (atomic operations emulated, mutex-based transmit queue).

For detailed build instructions and troubleshooting, see Building Documentation.

Documentation

• API Reference - XCP instrumentation API
• Configuration - Configuration options
• Examples - Example applications and CANape setup
• Technical Details - Addressing modes, A2L generation, instrumentation costs
• Building - Detailed build instructions and troubleshooting
• XCP Introduction - What is XCP?
• Changelog - Version history

License

See LICENSE file for details.