Reconfigurable aerospace processor enables on the fly adjustment
Microcontroller specialist Atmel has announced what it claims to be the industry's first radiation hardened aerospace microprocessor that can be reconfigured on the fly.
Part of the Atmel SPARC V8 processor family, the ATF697FF is designed to allow users to make ongoing modifications to satellites, in flight adjustments during trial flights and post launch alterations.
"The ability to make real time, on the fly adjustments to satellites just before launch or while in flight is an increasing demand in aerospace today," said Patrick Sauvage, general manager of the aerospace business unit at Atmel. "We've leveraged our extensive flight experience to deliver the industry's first reconfigurable processor that also reduces costs and increases time to market."
The device integrates Atmel's radiation hardened AT697F processor with a reconfigurable ATF280F fpga unit into a single multichip module (MCM) with an internal pci link. Atmel says performance reaches 100Mhz with low power down to 0.7W.
