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Objectives
The project is aimed at defining the architecture of a fully reconfigurable regenerative onboard processor (OBP), based on a reconfigurable technology available for space applications today or in a short term.
A safe communication protocol is also to be defined to transfer the reconfiguration data on the uplink RF channel. The OBP architecture, and the communication protocol, are implemented and tested using commercial off-the-shelf equipments based on the selected technology components (XILINX Virtex-4 FPGA family, already available in space-qualified version).
The project has several objectives:
- The definition of a reference scenario, in terms of applications and functional requirements, for a next generation reconfigurable onboard processor;
- A comparative analysis of the technologies suitable for the implementation of a fully reconfigurable, regenerative processor and the selection of a candidate technology based on its capabilities and its availability for space-based applications;
- The definition of the functions and the architecture of a reconfigurable onboard processor based on the selected reconfigurable technology;
- The definition of a reconfiguration methodology, capable to provide a reliable, efficient and secure reconfiguration of the onboard processor;
- The definition of the architecture of a processor prototype, based on the selected reconfigurable technology, and its implementation, using commercial off-the-shelf equipments, to verify the capabilities of the defined architecture in terms of achievable reconfiguration levels and ease of reconfiguration;
- The definition of the functions and the architecture and the manufacturing of a validation environment, to test the processor prototype.
Challenges
The main focus of the project is to verify the level of flexibility offered by an OBP architecture based on a fully reconfigurable technology and to test the effectiveness of the reconfiguration protocol.
Another relevant issue is to check the OBP continuity of service during a partial reconfiguration, a feature offered by the particular implementation technology selected.
The OBP validation tests will also allow to measure the time required to apply the different kinds of reconfigurations, from the time needed to transmit the data on the RF channel to that required to transfer the data in the FPGAs configuration memory.
Plan
The contractual kick-off was on July 1st, 2007.
Two phases are planned:
Phase 1, to devise a reference system scenario, make a survey of the reconfigurable technologies and select a technology to implement the OBP prototype, consolidate the architecture of the OBP and of the units of the OBP demonstration environment;
Phase 2, to carry on the detailed design and the manufacturing of the OBP and the ancillary units and to perform the validation tests.
Current Status
The Phase 2 of the project was successfully closed on October, 2010.
The test campaign proved the capability of the proposed architecture to implement a fully reconfigurable regenerative: following a well defined reconfiguration procedure, it was possible to perform all the required reconfiguration categories, from the simple update of parameters to the full reconfiguration.
The reconfiguration procedure is easily implemented using the communication channel: no dedicated carriers are needed and the reconfiguration data are transported using the traffic bursts.
The reconfiguration procedure does not affect the nominal operations of the OBP during the upload of the reconfiguration data; the nominal operations are interrupted only when the reconfiguration data are transferred to the FPGA configuration memory, for a time that is around 90s for the full reconfiguration of a Virtex-4 LX160 FPGA using the JTAG interface.
In the end, the high level of flexibility obtained with the proposed architecture may constitute a new opportunity for the regenerative onboard processors, allowing exploiting the added value provided by the regeneration of the signal without the drawback of the dependence from an air interface that cannot be modified after the satellite deployment.
The project is completed.
