FPGA Gurus

You knew the 40^th anniversary week of Apollo 11 could not go by without a brief mention of the expanding use of FPGAs in space. Two interesting programs have attracted notice this week: the use of the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro in a University of Stuttgart program called “Flying Laptop”; and the reliance of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite on the RTAX-S radiation-tolerant FPGA from Actel Corp.

New Scientist had perhaps the best recap of the Stuttgart Institute of Space System’s Flying Laptop program, slated for launch in 2012. Wide coverage of the project was spurred by an upcoming article in Acta Astronautica. The intent of the program is to prove that FPGAs can be used to reprogram hardware during orbit. Toshinori Kuwahara, who leads the hardware project at Stuttgart, said he elected to use multiple-backup FPGAs to protect against error caused by charged cosmic rays. The university will initiate a unique “Rent-A-Sat” program for Flying Laptop, using its programmability to offer orbital computing services to schools or agencies with unique requirements.

Meanwhile, Actel gave kudos to NASA for the LRO/LCROSS mission reaching lunar orbit. The LRO system is the first in space to use Actel’s high-density Ceramic Column Grid Array package, while LCROSS relies on a more conventional ceramic BGA. Whether missions rely on heavily redundant standard FPGAs or rad-tolerant devices designed for space, there’s a common message in the Flying Laptop and LRO/LCROSS missions: vendors with rad-hard microprocessors and gate arrays, such as Aeroflex and Honeywell, are bound to feel unexpected pressure as FPGAs in orbit become more commonplace.