Automotive networking has always relied on standardized serial communications hardware, but it was rarely compatible. In the late 1990s, the LIN Consortium was founded by five European automakers, Volcano Automotive Group and Freescale (at the time Motorola) to solve this problem. The first fully implemented version of the new LIN specification was published in November 2002 as LIN version 1.3. In September 2003, version 2.0 was introduced to expand configuration capabilities and make provisions for significant additional diagnostics features and tool interfaces.
Some North American automakers were concerned about the rising complexity and lack of direct North American representation in the LIN Consortium. As a result of their concerns, a Society of American Engineers (SAE) task force, which was part of the committee that standardizes vehicle networking, was formed to help ensure LIN 2.0 was suitable for global implementation. Although a full consensus was never reached, the task force published the SAE J2602 Recommended Practice for LIN Networks document, which seeks to fully specify ambiguities and optional features of the LIN 2.0 specification.
Since the SAE J2602 recommended practice is still based upon LIN 2.0 and the protocol and physical layer specifications are fundamentally the same, many of the generic MCU-based hardware solutions can work on either type of network.