On a spaceship Orion processor is used 12 years ago

Many people who follow the development of the space sphere, have little interest in small things, such as a computer system installed on the spacecraft. And in vain - here can open a lot of interesting things. For example, on the newest spaceship Orion, which NASA plan should go to the Moon and Mars, установлен Processor 12-year-old , PowerPC 750FX.

In principle, this news does not surprise those people who remember that the parts of a computer system "Shuttle" at the end of their useful life NASA sought almost at bazaars radio market (eventually purchased all sections b / y electronics on eBay and other sites) . And all because of electronic systems engineers prefer to use a spacecraft repeatedly proven solutions rather than new products that can sboynut the most inopportune moment.

That is why Orion is used IBM PowerPC 750FX , which first appeared on the market in 2002. PowerPC platform used in Apple computers before the corporation decided to go to the x86 architecture. Since PowerPC few that use, but in 2003 some models iBook G3 is set just such a processor, who now works in the Orion-e. The characteristics of this processor very few people are able to impress: 750FX clocked at 900 MHz with a bus frequency of 166 MHz and 512 KB L2 cache. Processor to create even 130 nm technology (for comparison, in the production of a family of processors Core M using 14 nm process).



Judging by the performance, the 750FX and ARM-chips used in the Samsung Galaxy SIII, are approximately equal.

Orion computer system is protected, used to create it the most stable components, including the 750FX. By the way, in case you need a system reboot, the ship has a backup computer (reboot lasts about 20 seconds, and it's too much for space flight). In case if the backup system something happens, engineers and provided a third system. Thus, in Orion's all done with a large margin, experts have tried to provide any surprises, including elevated levels of radiation.

Each board system uses two chip PowerPC 750FX. In this case, the system works by checking the accuracy of the calculations of each other, as well as the correct operation of the various blocks. The system is installed on identical software. If something goes wrong (for example, there was a failure due to radiation), the main system is rebooted and the work enters standby.





Source: geektimes.ru/post/242945/