VLSI design of a routing switch for the SpaceWire serial link standard

Modern satellite systems require the transfer of huge amounts of data on board to the satellite. This is particularly critical for future, high-capability remote-sensing missions. To address this issue, the European Space Agency recently proposed a new serial data link standard, named SpaceWire. In order to simplify the on board connectivity and to provide redundancy, a network routing switch is needed. In this paper, we present the VLSI design of a routing switch compliant with the SpaceWire standard issue C. A 100 Mbps single-chip circuit has been developed for the ATMEL 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS radiation tolerant technology resulting in 115 kgate complexity for a 100 MHz clock frequency.