A federated architecture is characterized in that every major function of an embedded system is allocated to a dedicated hardware unit. In a distributed control system this implies that adding a new function is tantamount to adding a new node. This has led to a situation where, for example, a state-of-the art control system onboard a premium car encompasses more than 50 nodes and many different network connections in order to achieve some functional coordination. Adding fault-tolerance to a federated architecture, e.g., by the provision of triple modular redundancy (TMR) leads to a further significant increase in the number of nodes and networks. The major advantages of a dedicated architecture are the physical encapsulation of the nearly autonomous-often distributed-subsystems, their outstanding fault containment and their clear-cut complexity management (independent development) in case the subsystems are nearly autonomous.