The RAD750 is a

radiation-hardened Radiation hardening is the process of making electronic components and circuits resistant to damage or malfunction caused by high levels of ionizing radiation ( particle radiation and high-energy electromagnetic radiation), especially for environ ...

single-board computer A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonstrati ...

manufactured by

BAE Systems Electronics, Intelligence & Support BAE Systems Electronic Systems (ES) is one of three operating groups of BAE Systems Inc., the North American subsidiary of the British global defence contractor BAE Systems PLC. History BAE Systems acquired Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronic ...

. The successor of the

RAD6000 The RAD6000 radiation-hardened single-board computer, based on the IBM RISC Single Chip CPU, was manufactured by IBM Federal Systems. IBM Federal Systems was sold to Loral, and by way of acquisition, ended up with Lockheed Martin and is ...

, the RAD750 is for use in high-

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

environments experienced on board

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

s and

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

. The RAD750 was released in 2001, with the first units launched into space in 2005.

Technology

The CPU has 10.4 million

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

s, an order of magnitude more than the RAD6000 (which had 1.1 million). It is manufactured using either 250 or 150 nm

photolithography In integrated circuit manufacturing, photolithography or optical lithography is a general term used for techniques that use light to produce minutely patterned thin films of suitable materials over a substrate, such as a silicon wafer, to protect ...

and has a die area of 130 mm². It has a core clock of 110 to 200

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

and can process at 266 MIPS or more. The CPU can include an extended

L2 cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, which ...

to improve performance. The CPU can withstand an absorbed radiation dose of 2,000 to 10,000 grays (200,000 to 1,000,000 rads), temperatures between −55 ° C and 125 °C, and requires 5 watts of power. The standard RAD750 single-board system (CPU and

motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...

) can withstand 1,000 grays (100,000 rads), temperatures between −55 °C and 70 °C, and requires 10 watts of power. The RAD750 system has a price that is comparable to the RAD6000, the latter of which as of 2002 was listed at US$200,000 (). Customer program requirements and quantities, however, greatly affect the final unit costs. The RAD750 is based on the

PowerPC 750 The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (spun off as Freescale Semiconductor bought by NXP Semiconductors). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-kno ...

. Its packaging and logic functions are completely compatible with the

PowerPC 7xx The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (spun off as Freescale Semiconductor bought by NXP Semiconductors). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-kno ...

family. The term ''RAD750'' is a registered trademark of BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

Deployment

In 2010, it was reported that there were over 150 RAD750s used in a variety of spacecraft. Notable examples, in order of launch date, include: * '' Deep Impact'' comet-chasing spacecraft, launched in January 2005 first to use the RAD750 computer. *

XSS 11 USA-165 or XSS-11 (Experimental Satellite System-11) is a small, washing-machine-sized, low-cost spacecraft developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate to test technology for proximity operations. In particula ...

, small experimental satellite, launched 11 April 2005. *

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, an ...

, launched 12 August 2005. * SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) instrument package on each of the

STEREO Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

spacecraft, launched 15 October 2006. *

WorldView-1 ''WorldView-1'' (WV 1) is a commercial earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. WorldView-1 was launched on 18 September 2007, followed later by the ''WorldView-2'' in 2009. First imagery from ''WorldView-1'' was available in October 20 ...

satellite, launched 18 September 2007, has two RAD750s. *

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is ...

, formerly GLAST, launched 11 June 2008. *

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...

, launched in March 2009. *

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions t ...

, launched on 18 June 2009. *

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

(WISE), launched 14 December 2009. *

Solar Dynamics Observatory The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. The goal of the LWS program is to develop the ...

, launched 11 February 2010. * ''Juno'' spacecraft, launched 5 August 2011. * ''Curiosity'' rover, launched 26 November 2011. *

Van Allen Probes The Van Allen Probes, formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), were two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. NASA conducted the Van Allen Probes mission as part of the L ...

, launched on 30 August 2012. *

InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intu ...

, launched on 5 May 2018. *

Perseverance rover ''Perseverance'', nicknamed ''Percy'', is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Jezero crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on July 30, 2020, at 11:50 ...

, launched 30 July 2020. *

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...

, launched 25 December 2021, uses one RAD750 clocked at 118 MHz.

References

External links

Radiation-Hardened Processors Products
from BAE Systems
BAE Systems’ Radiation-hardened electronics product guide
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

), from BAE Systems
BAE Systems RAD750 processor JTAG Emulator
from Corelis.com

NASA’s latest Mars rover has the same processor as an iMac from 1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rad750 Avionics computers BAE Systems Microcomputers NASA spin-off technologies PowerPC implementations Products introduced in 2001 Radiation-hardened microprocessors Single-board computers