Electronics partitioning for ignition systems with control circuits

The electronics partitioning for an ignition system (22) with complex control circuits configures a first ignition coil (281) out of a plurality of ignitions coils for an internal combustion engine (38) to include an electronic circuit (16), such as a complex integrated circuit (48), that can be shared with the remainder of the plurality of ignition coils. An appropriate wiring harness is configured so that the remainder of the plurality of ignition coils (282, 283, 284) can use the common, shared integrated circuit (48) in the first ignition coil (281) in response to the operation thereof. The inventive arrangement substantially reduces cost of electronics by a factor that is the reciprocal of the number of ignition coils, as well as increases reliability by reducing the absolute total number of complex integrated circuits.