It was a thrill for us that a VORAGO Technologies ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller was part of the payload that was rocketed to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Falcon 9 this week.
Space electronics technology has not kept up the pace of innovation that we have seen in recent years in commercial products such as consumer handsets. Part of the reason for this situation is that space is a harsh environment and will expose semiconductors to radiation. Developing chips that will operate in radiation is expensive, so there hasn’t been a lot of new chips developed for space in recent years.
Now that there is an ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller available that will operate in space, it will become ubiquitous very quickly. Already there are a dozen small satellite designs that will use this device in space very soon. There is a privately funded space mission planned for the summer of 2017 to put another VORAGO Technologies ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller into orbit. If all goes as schedule, it will not be the last to fly in 2017 either.
Before the VORAGO rad-hard ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller was available, there were two options that designers could use for space. The first option was to use an existing rad-hard processor: the pool of options is very limited, expensive and not exactly cutting edge. The second option for a designer was to use an up-screened commercial part. This can also get expensive depending on the amount of up-screening that is performed. Up-screening is the process of finding process outliers that will operate beyond the specification that they were designed for.
It is no surprise to us that a cost-effective rad-hard ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller is proving to be so popular. Our objective at VORAGO is to provide rad-hard embedded solutions that are cost-effective enough for any smallsat budget and robust enough for worry-free long missions. By using the ARM architecture in our MCU products, we also ensure that power consumption is optimized and designers have access to the largest choice of proven, easy-to-use development tools.
Nice blog Ross! For more information, you can check out the blog detailing the launch community.arm.com/.../arm-and-vorago-technologies-take-space-electronics-to-new-heights-by-neil-stroud-director-of-advanced-technology-marketing-arm