This was started over 16 months ago plus.
January 30, 2023
NASA Recruits Microchip, SiFive, and RISC-V to Develop 12-Core Processor SoC for Autonomous Space Missions
by Steven Leibson
NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) has selected Microchip to design and manufacture the multi-core High Performance Spaceflight Computer (HPSC) microprocessor SoC based on eight RISC-V X280 cores from SiFive with vector-processing instruction extensions organized into two clusters, with four additional RISC-V cores added for general-purpose computing. The project’s operational goal is to develop “flight computing technology that will provide at least 100 times the computational capacity compared to current spaceflight computers.” During a talk at the recent RISC-V Summit, Pete Fiacco, a member of the HPSC Leadership Team and JPL Consultant, explained the overall HPSC program goals.
Despite the name, the HPSC is not strictly a processor SoC for space. It’s designed to be a reliable computer for a variety of applications on the Earth – such as defense, commercial aviation, industrial robotics, and medical equipment – as well as being a good candidate for use in government and commercial spacecraft. Three characteristics that the HPSC needs beyond computing capability are fault tolerance, radiation tolerance, and overall platform security. The project will result in the development of the HPSC chip, boards, a software stack, and reference designs with initial availability in 2024 and space-qualified hardware available in 2025. Fiacco said that everything NASA JPL does in the future will be based on the HPSC.
NASA JPL set the goals for the HPSC based on its mission requirements to put autonomy into future spacecraft. Simply put, the tasks associated with autonomy are sensing, perceiving, deciding, and actuating. Sensing involves remote imaging using multi-spectral sensors and image processing. Perception instills meaning into the sensed data using additional image processing. Decision making includes mission planning that incorporates the vehicle’s current and future orientation. Actuation involves orbital and surface maneuvering and experiment activation and management.
Correlating these tasks with NASA’s overall objectives for its missions, Fiacco explained that the HPSC is designed to allow space-bound equipment to go, land, live, and explore extraterrestrial environments. Spacecraft also need to report back to earth, which is why Fiacco also included communications in all four major tasks. All of this will require a huge leap in computing power. Simulations suggest that the HPSC increases computing performance by 1000X compared to the processors currently flying in space, and Fiacco expects that number to improve with further optimization of the HPSC’s software stack.
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