In Austin, Texas, Space computing experts at NOVI LLC required a radiation-hardened microcontroller for their second-generation space-rated flight computer, designed for the SpaceX Transporter-12 mission. They sourced their solution from VORAGO Technologies, also based in Austin, Texas. NOVI’s spacecraft computing team chose the VORAGO Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller, which will play a significant role in managing the spacecraft bus, offloading many tasks from the AMD Versal adaptive system-on-chip (SoC).
The second-generation space-rated flight computer, a combination of the AMD Versal adaptive SoC and the VORAGO Arm Cortex-M4, has completed testing and is set to launch on the Transporter-12 mission this fall. NOVI’s director of product development, Jonathan King, stated that they initially selected the VORAGO M4 processor as a supervisor for the main SoC to provide the highest levels of radiation performance. However, they discovered that the high performance and rich peripheral set of the MCU made it capable of taking on a more primary role.
VORAGO Technologies offers several M4 processors for space and military applications. These include the VA41630 Hi-Rel, which can withstand more than 200 kilorads of radiation, the VA41620 Hi-Rel, capable of withstanding more than 300 kilorads, and the VA41629 and VA41628, also able to withstand more than 300 kilorads of radiation. All these processors offer features such as Ethernet, SpaceWire, A/D and D/A converters, and non-volatile memory (NVM).
Interested parties can find more information about VORAGO Technologies at www.voragotechannelcom and about NOVI LLC at www.novillc.com. This collaboration between NOVI and VORAGO Technologies promises an efficient and resilient solution for space missions.
