And if you are curious about the modern radiation hardened CPUs then the current state of the art ones are the MOOG BRE440 [0] and the BAE RAD5500 [1], 5545 [2] being the highest performance multi core one.
Even more interesting that they both use the IBM POWER architecture!
There have been a number of rad-hard SPARC chips from different vendors tthat have flown along the way, and I know Frontgrade/Gaisler currently sells a SPARC v8 version, which isn't that far behind the 'state of the art' as the e5500 based PPCs from BEA (at least as far as state of the art in space rated, rad-hard processors goes...it's a conservative market). Quite a few rad-hard ARMs out there farther down the performance curve.
Frontgrade also advertises a rad-hard RISC-V, as does Microchip (a PIC64 variant), that I know nothing about, but seems like an inevitable next step. Seems like you could grab some Xilinx rad-hard FPGA and bobs your uncle.
Interesting combination of 'remarkable' and 'wtf' that we fling nuclear weapons around with the computational equivalent of a couple of TRS-80s[1]. I can only imagine the sighs of relief from the devs when things like the MIL-STD-1750a and later rad-hard SPARC and PPC variants came along.
[1] yes...I know the TRS-80 had a z80, not an 8085. Close enough.
Very interesting! Definitely some jargon I’ve not come across before.
“The chips were made on a n-on-n+ epitaxial substrate to provide latchup control, extensive guard rings around transistors were used and hardened oxides”
That number was probably shaped by minimum production-run requirements, alongside the need for software development units, along with other factors, like the use in Trident II and other quests we may not know about.
And if you are curious about the modern radiation hardened CPUs then the current state of the art ones are the MOOG BRE440 [0] and the BAE RAD5500 [1], 5545 [2] being the highest performance multi core one.
Even more interesting that they both use the IBM POWER architecture!
0, https://www.moog.com/products/avionics/spacecraft-avionics/b...
1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD5500
2, https://web.archive.org/web/20190226111129/https://www.baesy...
There have been a number of rad-hard SPARC chips from different vendors tthat have flown along the way, and I know Frontgrade/Gaisler currently sells a SPARC v8 version, which isn't that far behind the 'state of the art' as the e5500 based PPCs from BEA (at least as far as state of the art in space rated, rad-hard processors goes...it's a conservative market). Quite a few rad-hard ARMs out there farther down the performance curve.
Frontgrade also advertises a rad-hard RISC-V, as does Microchip (a PIC64 variant), that I know nothing about, but seems like an inevitable next step. Seems like you could grab some Xilinx rad-hard FPGA and bobs your uncle.
Wow, until you posted this I thought Moog was just a synthesizer company. And a bit of an odd one at that based on how I saw that synth presented.
Interesting combination of 'remarkable' and 'wtf' that we fling nuclear weapons around with the computational equivalent of a couple of TRS-80s[1]. I can only imagine the sighs of relief from the devs when things like the MIL-STD-1750a and later rad-hard SPARC and PPC variants came along.
[1] yes...I know the TRS-80 had a z80, not an 8085. Close enough.
You don't need much calculation power to manage a 30-min ballistic trajectory.
The inertial navigation system is the very crazy part, along with the nuclear fusion warhead design itself.
https://youtu.be/AazmxNs5kmE?is=2LE2q3rBSWDyTs7j
I was under the impression that the Trident II could do terminal phase maneuvering, so not a straight ballistic trajectory, but fair enough.
Very interesting! Definitely some jargon I’ve not come across before.
“The chips were made on a n-on-n+ epitaxial substrate to provide latchup control, extensive guard rings around transistors were used and hardened oxides”
This is slop, but perhaps the old-fashioned kind.
> An 8085 processor that could handle 1×106 rads of radiation with only a 25% reduction in performance, and 3×106 rads with a 40% drop.
Hmm, from where did they copy-paste this mangled scientific notation?
Ah here we are, pg. 37 (46 in PDF file): https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA063902.pdf
Excellent find. And yes, obviously this is slop. 106 rad is exactly nothing for nuclear usage.
> Galileo space probe [..] How many IC’s were needed? Over 50,000 for the probe itself, backups, testing chips etc.
I seriously doubt you need to fabricate 50k CPUs for a single space probe, including backups, testing chips, etc.
That number was probably shaped by minimum production-run requirements, alongside the need for software development units, along with other factors, like the use in Trident II and other quests we may not know about.
> other quests we may not know about.
Back then an interface between terrestrial computer systems and a Zeta Reticulan spacecraft required a small supercomputer on our side.