A high performance reliable dataflow based processor for space applications

Conventional communication satellite payloads have the drawback to have their architecture fixed for the lifetime of the satellite (15 years) and therefore cannot adapt to changing communication standards and market/application evolution (like multimedia applications). A way to alleviate the rigidity is the use of onboard reconfigurable technology in order to be able to modify the processing of the signals performed onboard. Additionally, the increasing use of new earth-observation and communication technologies coupled with rapidly changing customer needs require a high performance and flexible processing technology for on-board data processing. The algorithmic and processing requirements for such processing are of a magnitude larger than those that could be successfully handled by classical processors. Therefore, there is a need for a powerful and flexible processor that can process large amounts of data at high speeds, and at the same time, is reconfigurable to adapt to changes. This paper gives an overview of the development at Astrium for in-orbit applications demanding high performance processing.