A low-cost, radiation-hardened single-board computer for command and data handling

Los Alamos National Laboratory has designed and manufactured a single-board computer (SBC) for deployment in space-flight applications. The SBC is designed to meet the command- and data-handling requirements for missions requiring true space-grade radiation hardness and fault tolerance, exceeding those that are typical in CubeSat and SmallSat applications but at a substantially lower cost, lower power, and smaller form factor than encountered in the space-grade solution space available from the large aerospace manufacturers. The SBC leverages the MicroTCA standard, which makes it smaller than common 6U-sized solutions but still allows interoperability with a diverse ecosystem of commercial development equipment. The design uses QMLV or Class-S parts with total-ionizing-dose tolerance appropriate for deployment on long-term missions in MEO or GEO environments. The design uses a space-quality dual-core processor ASIC, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), memories, and interfaces to meet the command- and data-handling requirements of medium-sized missions. Consuming only 5 W and measuring less than 7 inches × 6 inches, the design supports 9-gigabit/s class bidirectional SerDes links, 6 SpaceWire ports, redundant MIL-STD-1553B ports, 32 Mbytes of EDAC protected SRAM, 2 GBytes of nonvolatile memory, and supports 200 MFLOPS operation. Custom intellectual property (IP) has been developed for the FPGA to handle the interface to the nonvolatile memories and to provide error detection and correction for instrument boards elsewhere in the payload. The processor can run VxWorks™, RTEMS, or Linux. Cooling and mechanical hardness is achieved with a custom conduction-cooled frame that fits around the MicroTCA-form-factor printed circuit board.