Operation of commercial R3000 processors in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space environment

Author

Kaschmitter, J.L. ; Shaeffer, D.L. ; Colella, N.J. ; McKnett, C.L. ; Coakley, P.G.

Author_Institution

Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., CA, USA

Volume

38

Issue

6

fYear

1991

fDate

12/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1415

Lastpage

1420

Abstract

Spacecraft processors must operate with minimal degradation of performance in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) radiation environment, which includes the effects of total accumulated ionizing dose and single event phenomena (SEP) caused by protons and cosmic rays. Commercially available microprocessors can offer a number of advantages relative to radiation-hardened devices but are not normally designed to tolerate effects induced by the LEO environment. Extensive testing of the MIPS R3000 Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor family for operation in LEO environments is reported. The authors have characterized total dose and SEP effects for altitudes and inclinations of interest to systems operating in LEO, and they postulate techniques for detection and alleviation of SEP effects based on experimental results

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; aerospace instrumentation; cosmic ray effects and interactions; environmental testing; integrated circuit testing; microprocessor chips; proton effects; reduced instruction set computing; CMOS; LEO environment; MIPS R3000 RISC microprocessor; R3000 processors; cosmic rays; low Earth orbit space environment; protons; single event phenomena; spacecraft processors; testing; total accumulated ionizing dose; Computer aided instruction; Cosmic rays; Degradation; Ionizing radiation; Low earth orbit satellites; Microprocessors; Protons; Reduced instruction set computing; Space vehicles; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.124126

Filename

124126