SOSA also supports scalability, allowing systems to be easily scaled up or down based on mission requirements. Whether it’s adding new sensors, expanding the capabilities of existing ones, or integrating with other systems, SOSA provides a scalable framework that accommodates evolving needs.
Standardization through SOSA simplifies maintenance and logistics. With a common set of interfaces and protocols, it becomes easier to manage and support sensor systems in the field. This is crucial for ensuring the reliability and availability of systems in mission-critical situations.
Microchip’s So says open systems requirements are taking off — literally — for non-terrestrial tech.
“While there are space-specific system standards, they often face interoperability challenges,” says So. “However, as the space market continues to expand, driven by both commercial/private applications and as well as the new space race, we see SOSA as a natural model for this segment.
He continues, “Specifically, we are seeing strong interests in standardized, interoperable, and radiation-hardened embedded processing single board computers (SBCs) for space applications in systems for both defense and non-defense. Besides interoperable SBCs, we are seeing the need for systems to support SSD [solid state drive] based NVMe drives to support real-time, localized, data and imaging processing in conjunction with FPGA-based hardware accelerators cards – all of which are interconnected with standardized open networking protocols like Ethernet and PCI Express (PCIe).”
Microchip’s So explains that his company views the adoption of open and standardized technologies in networking as a key focus.
“Specifically, we see Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) being strongly evaluated and embraced by various [aerospace and defense] agencies, in everything from ground-based vehicles to fixed-wing aircraft and spacecraft.
He continues, “Today’s modern ground and aerospace platforms require high-bandwidth and deterministic networking. Historically, with bandwidth not being a challenge, this requirement was met with legacy control bus protocols like MIL-STD-1553 or proprietary/single-vendor/expensive technologies like Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE). However, these technologies are no longer sufficient in today’s high-bandwidth environments. This is where TSN comes in. TSN is an industry-standard, multi-vendor-based protocol that delivers deterministic and fault-tolerant networking with the bandwidth scalability of standard Ethernet. TSN is proven and used in a variety of non-[aerospace and defense]applications already today, from industrial automation to automotive networking. Most recently, IEEE has enhanced TSN with an aerospace-specific profile called ‘P802.1DP – TSN for Aerospace Onboard Ethernet Communications.’ These enhancements address the unique needs of [aerospace and defense] applications.”
Staying open
So also notes that Microchip anticipates that the RISC-V ISA standard will be increasingly leveraged in the military and aerospace sector.
“No longer just an emerging interest, but a growing requirement is to leverage the RISC-V ISA for embedded processing,” So says. “RISC-V is especially suitable for supporting the needs of workloads requiring power efficient vector instruction set processing in image and vision processing applications.
RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) principles. It is designed to be simple, modular, and extensible, providing a foundation for building various processor implementations. RISC-V is unique in that it is open-source and freely available, allowing anyone to design, implement, and distribute processors based on the RISC-V ISA without licensing fees.
Like SOSA, the RISC-V ISA is designed to be scalable from small, embedded devices to large, high-performance computing systems. This scalability makes it suitable for a wide range of applications, from microcontrollers to data center servers.
According to RISC-V International, the nonprofit organization shepherding the instruction set, there are now nearly 4,000 RISC-V members across 70 countries, including processing giants like Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD.
“RISC-V combines a modular technical approach with an open, royalty-free ISA — meaning that anyone, anywhere can benefit from the IP contributed and produced by RISC-V,” the organization says. “As a non-profit, RISC-V maintains no commercial interest in products or services. As an open standard, anyone may leverage RISC-V as a building block in their open or proprietary solutions and services.”
Microchip’s So says that “As an open standard, RISC-V allows companies and agencies to innovate cost effectively. With the recent formation of RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) by the Linux Foundation, the software ecosystem for RISC-V will further be accelerated to ensure broad market adoption.”
Making space
Operating in the vacuum of space makes signal and sensor processing technologies a bit more difficult than their Earthbound cousins. In the latter half of 2022, officials of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory had tapped Microchip Technology to develop the agency’s High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor that will provide at least 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers.
“This cutting-edge spaceflight processor will have a tremendous impact on our future space missions and even technologies here on Earth,” Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation within the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington said when the contract was announced. “This effort will amplify existing spacecraft capabilities and enable new ones and could ultimately be used by virtually every future space mission, all benefiting from more capable flight computing.”