Speaker
Roland Trautner
(E)
Description
In recent years, ESA has pursued the development of technologies for next-generation space Digital Signal Processing (DSP). One of those developments, the Massively Parallel Processor Breadboard (MPPB), demonstrated European DSP cores as well as scalable Network-On-Chip (NoC) technology for large Systems on Chip (SoC) and included space typical features such as SpaceWire interfaces, ADC/DAC bridges and more. In a subsequent activity aimed at development of library elements for IMEC's DARE180 technology, a DSP prototype chip was developed in order to prove the key elements of MPPB in DARE180 based silicon, and pave the way towards future space DSPs based on the demonstrated technologies.
The Scalable Sensor Data Processor (SSDP) is the first of a new generation of such processors, featuring an architecture very similar to MPPB (LEON General Purpose Processor (GPP), 2 VLIW Xentium(R) DSP cores, high-bandwidth NoC, space typical interfaces (SpaceWire, ADC/DAC, CAN, SPI and others) for the digital part. Like the prototype, the ASIC will be based on DARE180 technology which allows incorporation of analogue / mixed signal elements. It is expected that several mixed signal blocks will be integrated, such as a fast (100 MHz) ADC for instrument data acquisition, a second slow (ca 100 kHz) ADC with multiplexers for housekeeping data acquisition, and additional circuitry for connection to external sensors. The ASIC will run at a target clock speed of up to 100 MHz, providing in excess of 1 Giga-Ops for 16-bit data and 500 MOps for 32 bit fixed point data. The GPP will provide a floating point unit, and on-chip memories will be provided for fast data access in addition to external memories such as SDRAM, SRAM, and PROM. The ASIC will feature high radiation hardness and reliability as well as low power consumption. The development, which started in Q1/Q2 2014, is expected to provide prototype chips towards the end of 2015, followed by flight models about 1 year later.
Primary author
Roland Trautner
(E)
Co-authors
Boris Glass
(European Space Agency)
Dr
Richard Jansen
(ESA/ESTEC)
