Addressing Challenges with FPGAs in Space Using the GR716B Microcontroller

By _Frontgrade Gaisler Blog

May 13, 2024

In the realm of space electronics, reliability is paramount. Every component onboard a spacecraft must withstand the harsh conditions of outer space, including extreme temperatures, vacuum, and radiation. Among these components, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) play a crucial role and come with their own set of challenges.

Challenges with FPGAs in Space

Two significant challenges that affect FPGAs are power management and susceptibility to radiation-induced failures.

Ensuring stable power to an FPGA in space is not a trivial task. With the trend towards lower core voltages and the use of multiple voltage rails, supervising and sequencing these power rails is essential to guarantee system reliability.

To understand the second challenge, we need to dig a bit into the FPGA microarchitecture.

Look-Up Tables (LUTs) are the fundamental building blocks for implementing logic functions in a FPGA. A LUT typically consists of a small amount of memory that stores a truth table representing the desired logic function. This memory can be programmed to implement any arbitrary logic function of a fixed number of input signals. The memory that controls the behaviour of the LUT is called the FPGA configuration memory. The state of the configuration memory defines the logic function implemented in the FPGA fabric. For SRAM based FPGAs, the configuration memory is typically loaded from an external non-volatile memory after power-up and remains static until the system loses power.

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