Single event effects and performance predictions for space applications of RISC processors

Author

Kimbrough, J.R. ; Colella, N.J. ; Denton, S.M. ; Shaeffer, D.L. ; Shih, D. ; Wilburn, J.W. ; Coakley, P.G. ; Casteneda, C. ; Koga, R. ; Clark, D.A. ; Ullmann, J.L.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., CA, USA

Volume

41

Issue

6

fYear

1994

Firstpage

2706

Lastpage

2714

Abstract

Proton and ion single event phenomena (SEP) tests were performed on 32-b processors including R3000A´s from all commercial manufacturers along with the Performance PR3400 family, Integrated Device Technology Inc. 79R3081, LSI Logic Corporation LR33000HC, and Intel i80960MX parts. The microprocessors had acceptable upset rates for operation in a low earth orbit or a lunar mission such as CLEMENTINE with a wide range in proton total dose failure. Even though R3000A devices are 60% smaller in physical area than R3000 devices, there was a 340% increase in device single event upset (SEU) cross section. Software tests of varying complexity demonstrate that registers and other functional blocks using register architecture dominate the cross section. The current approach of giving a single upset cross section can lead to erroneous upset rates depending on the application software.<>

Keywords

aerospace computing; digital signal processing chips; ion beam effects; proton effects; reduced instruction set computing; special purpose computers; 32 bit; 79R3081; CLEMENTINE; LR33000HC; PR3400; RISC processors; i80960MX; ion irradiation; low earth orbit; microprocessors; proton irradiation; proton total dose failure; registers; single event phenomena; single event upset; Large scale integration; Logic devices; Logic testing; Low earth orbit satellites; Manufacturing processes; Microprocessors; Performance evaluation; Protons; Single event upset; Space technology;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.340637

Filename

340637