According to foreign media reports recently, Microchip has won a $50 million project to develop next-generation high-reliability processors for space missions.

According to reports, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has selected Microchip to develop a high-performance space computing (HPSC) processor that will provide at least 100 times the computing power of current space computers, suitable for planetary exploration. All types of future space missions to the surface of the Moon and Mars.

"Our current space computers were developed nearly 30 years ago, and while they have performed well on past missions, future NASA missions will require significant improvements in onboard computing," said Wesley Powell, NASA's chief technologist for advanced avionics. capability and reliability. The new compute processors will provide the advancements in performance, fault tolerance and flexibility needed to meet these future mission demands.”

Microchip will build, design and deliver the HPSC processor within three years, with the goal of using the processor in future lunar and planetary exploration missions. A key element of a scalable modular fault-tolerant architecture includes the ability to shut down processing blocks to save power.

Through the acquisition of Atmel and the French space design team, Microchip already has a series of R&D capabilities for radiation-tolerant processors, space networks, and its supply chain has been approved for NASA projects.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has commissioned a similar initiative that is using the RISC-V open instruction set.

Babak Samimi, Corporate Vice President of Microchip's Communications Business Unit, said: "We are delighted that NASA has selected Microchip as its partner to develop the next generation of space-scale computing processor platforms. It will provide comprehensive Ethernet networking and advanced artificial intelligence/machine learning. platform, while delivering unprecedented performance gains, fault tolerance, and a secure architecture at low power consumption.” NASA said Microchip’s HPSC processors could be useful for other U.S. government agencies’ satellite systems. These potential applications include industrial automation, edge computing, Ethernet data transmission, artificial intelligence, and even IoT gateways.