Frontgrade Gaisler Leads the Way in RISC-V Processor Development for Space Applications
May 13 2024 - 10:06AM
Business Wire
Under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA),
Frontgrade Gaisler is designing a new RISC-V processor tailored to
meet the requirements of microcontrollers for the space industry.
As an open instruction set architecture (ISA), RISC-V’s inherent
configurability and efficiency provide the ideal foundation to
drive innovation forward in critical sectors of the space computing
landscape.
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Under a contract with the European Space
Agency (ESA), Frontgrade Gaisler is designing a new RISC-V
processor tailored to meet the requirements of microcontrollers for
the space industry. (Graphic: Business Wire)
“Building on over 25 years of successfully using the SPARC open
ISA in space, this effort is an important step forward in the
transition to the emerging and equally open RISC-V architecture,”
said Roland Weigand, Technical Officer at ESA. “RISC-V is the
preferred architecture across a wide range of space products, from
microcontrollers to advanced SoC-FPGAs and high performance
microprocessors for on-board data processing.”
For this project, Frontgrade Gaisler is concentrating on
deterministic operation and minimal latency so that the new RISC-V
processor IP will execute tasks predictably and reliably and
quickly respond to input stimuli. With these additional benefits,
the processor can be integrated into radiation-hardened
microcontrollers and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that
support space missions. This model will extend the RISC-V ecosystem
and complement the NOEL-V RISC-V processor, which shares the focus
on space applications with an emphasis on high-performance
capabilities.
"Frontgrade Gaisler has decades of experience supplying the
space industry with products that implement open standards, and now
we’re applying our proven know-how to bring RISC-V advancements to
the space industry," said Sandi Habinc, General Manager at
Frontgrade Gaisler. “Our team is committed to providing tangible
benefits that help progress and grow the entire space community and
enable new types of space missions.”
About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space.
Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space
capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver
benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
About Frontgrade Gaisler
Frontgrade Gaisler is a leading provider of radiation-hardened
microprocessors and IP cores for critical applications,
particularly in the space industry. The company’s processors are
known for their reliability, fault tolerance, and radiation
tolerance, making them ideal for any space mission or other
high-reliability application.
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Contact Liz Ryan Sax for more information.
Press@frontgrade.com