NASA wants a hundredfold upgrade for space computers
- Reference: 1660716312
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/17/nasa_space_computer/
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If NASA is to fulfill its goal of exploring deeper into the solar system, it's going to have to develop advanced computers capable of carrying out complex navigation and communication tasks for all sorts of hardware – from spacecraft to robotic rovers.
Thus, the US space agency wants a hardy processor line that can not only survive tough environments with extreme temperatures and high cosmic radiation, but will also have at least 100 times the computational capacity of today's computer chips in space.
[1]
"This cutting-edge spaceflight processor will have a tremendous impact on our future space missions and even technologies here on Earth," Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, [2]said this week.
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"This effort will amplify existing spacecraft capabilities and enable new ones, and could ultimately be used by virtually every future space mission, all benefiting from more capable flight computing."
NASA has tapped Microchip Technology – an Arizona company founded in the 1980s and famous for its PIC line of chips – for the job of developing its next-generation space chip. The $50 million contract will fund Microchip's efforts to design and manufacture the so-called High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor over three years. NASA wants the chip's architecture to be reliable, capable of operating with a higher fault tolerance, and much more powerful.
[5]NASA wants nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030
[6]Lonestar plans to put datacenters in the Moon's lava tubes
[7]MIT boffins make AI chips '1 million times faster than the synapses in the human brain'
[8]Experts warn transition to private space stations won't happen anytime soon
The processor design has to be general enough to support a wide range of applications – including AI, edge computing, Ethernet data transmission, and other communication systems. Microchip will have to think about how the chip can be adapted to power all types of missions that will monitor Earth, explore Mars, or possibly support astronauts to (and on) the Moon.
"We are pleased that NASA selected Microchip as its partner to develop the next-generation space-qualified compute processor platform," beamed Babak Samimi, corporate vice president for Microchip's Communications business unit.
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"We will foster an industry-wide ecosystem of single board computer partners anchored on the HPSC processor and Microchip's complementary space-qualified total system solutions to benefit a new generation of mission-critical edge compute designs optimized for size, weight, and power."
It's about time NASA revamps its space computers, according to Wesley Powell, NASA's principal technologist for advanced avionics. "Our current spaceflight computers were developed almost 30 years ago. While they have served past missions well, future NASA missions demand significantly increased onboard computing capabilities and reliability. The new computing processor will provide the advances required in performance, fault tolerance, and flexibility to meet these future mission needs."
The Register has asked NASA and Microchip Technology for more comment. ®
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Re: Did someone..
I'm too busy saying "c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r chips in spaaaace!"
(although perhaps I'm a little too fond of indulging my inner Miss Piggy)
We will have tube monitors in space in 2179!
Instead or an array of light-bulbs. What? Has anyone ever seen "Aliens"? Or played Alien Isolation?
They're still around?
ARM ate their lunch years ago, almost entirely because Microchip charged for their C compiler.
It seems they grew half a brain at some point in the last decade, but even now they want to charge for optimisations.
It does seem an odd choice, as their highest performance processor (SAM) appears to be a single core, 600MHz - ARM9 from 2001. It's not even Cortex, it's that old.
Re: They're still around?
There are advantages in going that far back in time. Everything is bigger so less susceptible to bit flips. Alternatively you can select a more modern manufacturing process and optimise for low power and wider temperature range. Think of every new feature as a place where radiation induced bit flips can ruin your day in a way that you will have to work around. CPUs in space often to not have a memory management unit so programmers do not have to deal with potential bit flips in the address translation cache.
I can easily understand NASA selecting an embedded system chip designer that has retained experience with retro-tech.
Didnt AstroPi already do this?
Seriously though how long will it take to get people up to speed to fill 100 times the activity space safely?
I know there is access to a lot of NASA code but is there access to the more recent stuff and the thinking behind it?
Re: Didnt AstroPi already do this?
AstroPi is in LEO where radiation is reduced by Earth's magnetic field. Things get much worse going through the Van Allen belt. NASA sends probes to some really horrible places like Jupiter and its moons.
Extra redundancy
There is stuff up there in space that was launched in the 1970s and is still in communication with NASA. Of course Voyagers are extreme case, but it's to be expected that NASA can launch log-term missions now that will still be operational in 2050-2060. With that in mind it's good to load as high capacity as possible, with lots of built-in flexibility that can later be upgraded with software updates, similair to what they did with Hubble.
Re: Extra redundancy
Yeah, but Hubble frequently got [1]new computers as well...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Computer_systems_and_data_processing
Re: Extra redundancy
"with lots of built-in flexibility that can later be upgraded with software updates, similar to what they did with Hubble"
Even Voyager 1 and 2 could - and did - receive software updates and virtually every NASA mission since.
I think you are getting confused with Hubble's capability to be have HARDWARE upgrades. At least until the space shuttle fleet was grounded.
https://hubblesite.org/mission-and-telescope/servicing-missions
"NASA has awarded a $50 million contract"
So they spend money on someone making slow chips to make them much faster than existing chips form other manufacturers?
And doing so by means of miracles, presumably? Looks like NASA has been had.
Did someone..
say Skynet?