Abstract
Technology of combustion and its control reached such a level of maturity in contemporary SI piston engines that their future improvement potential can be only peripheral in nature. This statement seems to be true with respect to combustion systems where the execution of the exothermic process in the engine chamber proceeds according to the mode described commonly as a flame-traversing-the-charge. An alternative is an idealized system where the exothermic chemical reactions take place within the whole volume of the chamber and the heat release rate is controlled. Some attempts to apply this idea are discussed in the paper and a method to control combustion during its progress is introduced.