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Space Forum 2017: SpaceWire and SpaceFibre for the Microsemi RTG4

15 May 2017

Filming STAR-Dundee, behind the scenes

STAR-Dundee has partnered with Microsemi for this year’s Microsemi Space Forum. Space Forum 2017 starts this Thursday (18th of May) with a North American online event. As a partner of the Space Forum, STAR-Dundee have created a video demonstrating SpaceWire and SpaceFibre for the Microsemi RTG4. This will be premiered on Thursday as part of the online event.

Microsemi Space Forum partner videos including STAR-Dundee’s will be aired between 9:30-10:00, 11:15-12:15, and 14:00-14:30. All times are PST.
For more information and the agenda of the event please see Microsemi’s website: https://www.microsemi.com/spaceforum/space-forum#agenda 

Register for this free event here: www.microsemi.com/spaceforum/space-forum

STAR-Dundee will also be exhibiting at Microsemi Space Forum, Europe in Noordwijk, Netherlands, on the 20th of June and Microsemi Space Forum, India at The Leela Palace, Bangalore on the 25th of July and Courtyard Marriott Ahmedabad, India on the 27th of July.

Check out all the 2017 events we will be attending on our home page.

SpaceFibre Multi-Lane and Single-Lane Demonstration at IEEE Aerospace 2017

09 March 2017

STAR-Dundee's IEEE Aerospace 2017 Demonstration

STAR-Dundee once again attended the IEEE Aerospace in Big Sky (Montana). There we presented the latest designs using SpaceFibre and SpaceWire technology, including the capabilities of theSpaceFibre Multi-Lane interface and the SpaceFibre 9-port router. Shown in the photograph are two radiation-tolerant Microsemi RTG4 FPGAs, each implementing a different flavour of our SpaceFibre IP (Single-Lane and Multi-Lane).

STAR-Dundee Sponsors FSW 16

13 December 2016

Flight Software Workshop 2016 Demo

STAR-Dundee is delighted to once again sponsor the 2016 Flight Software Workshop being held on the Caltech Campus in Pasadena, California.  As well as presenting the latest SpaceFibre developments, we are also demonstrating the latest SpaceFibre and SpaceWire technology at our exhibition stand.

If you’re unable to attend, you can follow the workshop on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSWWorkshop.  Our CEO’s SpaceFIbre presentation is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWyZNSJnaEU, and starts 3 minutes in to the video.

2016 International SpaceWire Conference in Yokohama, Japan

21 October 2016

2016 International SpaceWire Conference

STAR-Dundee enjoyed exhibiting at the 2016 International SpaceWire Conference held from 25th to 27th of October 2016 in Yokohama, Japan.  On our exhibition stand we demonstrated our latest SpaceWire and SpaceFibre products, including a demonstration of SpaceFibre multi-laning.  We also presented papers on various topics including SpaceFibre networks and multi-laning, SpaceFibre link analysis and test and development equipment, SpaceFibre flight equipment, SpaceWire-D and the new SpaceWire PXI devices.  Prior to the conference, some of the STAR-Dundee team presented tutorials on SpaceFibre and SpaceWire-D.

STAR-Dundee Exhibiting at 30th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites

09 August 2016

Small Satellite Conference 2016 Demo

STAR-Dundee is once again exhibiting at the Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah, USA.  Visit us at Booth Space 31 on the second floor to see our latest SpaceWire and SpaceFibre products.  On one side of the booth we are demonstrating our new SpaceFibre router PXI cards.  These are connected to Microsemi RTG4 devices through an FMC SpaceWire/SpaceFibre Board hosting both SpaceWire and SpaceFibre IP.  On the other side of the booth we are demonstrating the powerful triggering capabilities of the Brick Mk3.

SpaceFibre Routing Demonstrated at SEE/MAPLD and Space Tech Expo

20 May 2016

SEE/MAPLD and Space Tech Expo logos

STAR-Dundee exhibited at two events in California in the week beginning 23rd of May.  From the 24th until the 25th we were at the 25th Annual Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium coupled with the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop in La Jolla, San Diego.  In parallel, from the 24th to the 26th we were also in Pasadena at Space Tech Expo 2016.

At both events we had some of our SpaceWire and SpaceFibre products on display, including a demonstration of the SpaceFibre protocol running on the Microsemi RTG4 FPGA connected to our FMC SpaceWire/SpaceFibre Board.  We also demonstrated our new SpaceFibre Routers at SEE/MAPLD on the 24th and at Space Tech Expo on the 25th and 26th.  This demonstration highlights the features of SpaceFibre which make it ideal for many space applications:

  • High data rates – 2.5 Gbits/s links, plus multi-laning support.
  • SpaceWire compatibility – STAR Fire units are used to interconnect SpaceWire and SpaceFibre.
  • Low cable mass – Both flight and lab cables are used in the demonstration.
  • Quality of service – Multiple traffic streams are multiplexed over a single SpaceFibre link, with each stream assigned a percentage of the bandwidth.
  • Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery – Cables can be removed and the retry mechanism ensures the destination encounters no errors.

SpaceFibre Multi-Laning Premiered at DASIA 2016

13 May 2016

Demonstration of multi-laning at DASIA 2016

STAR-Dundee has demonstrated the advanced multi-laning capabilities of the SpaceFibre protocol. This allows several lanes to operate in parallel to provide enhanced throughput. For example, with four lanes running at 2.5 Gbits/s each and aggregate throughput of 10 Gbits/s is achieved. SpaceFibre multi-laning can operate with any number of lanes, from 1 to 16. Each lane is normally bi-directional, but to support spaceflight instruments with very high-data rate in one direction and to save mass and power, it is possible to have some uni-directional lanes in a multi-lane link, provided that at least one lane is bi-directional. SpaceFibre multi-laning also supports graceful degradation in the event of a lane failure. If a lane fails, the multi-lane link will rapidly reconfigure to use the remaining lanes so that important (high priority) information can still get through. It takes a couple of microseconds for this reconfiguration to occur, which happens without loss of information. Clearly, with reduced bandwidth some information will not be sent over the link, but this will be less important, low priority, information. If a redundant lane is available in the link, it can be enabled and full capacity operation will resume. SpaceFibre IP cores and test equipment are available from STAR-Dundee. The SpaceFibre ECSS standard is due to be published by the end of 2016.

The photograph shows multi-laning capability of SpaceFibre being demonstrated to spacecraft engineers at the DASIA 2016 conference held in May in Tallinn, Estonia. A four lane link was demonstrated with low priority high bandwidth traffic flowing over some virtual channels and high priority video data over another virtual channel. Lanes were unplugged with corresponding loss in bandwidth, but the link continued to operate sending the “critical” video data without interruption. Only when all four lanes were unplugged, did the video data stream cease. As soon as any of the four lanes were plugged back in, the video stream continued once more.

STAR-Dundee and Microsemi Collaboration

03 March 2016

Microsemi logo

STAR-Dundee is to collaborate with Microsemi to provide SpaceWire and SpaceFibre network technology using Microsemi’s RTG4 high-speed signal processing radiation-tolerant field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

“We are pleased to be working with Microsemi and leverage our unrivalled expertise to help the company expand the growing adoption of RTG4 FPGAs in SpaceWire and SpaceFibre applications,” said our CEO, Steve Parkes. “Our commitment is to ensure our customers can begin working with our technologies as quickly as possible, and utilizing Microsemi’s innovative RTG4 FPGAs can help the industry achieve this easily.”

STAR-Dundee is a Microsemi FPGA & SoC Partner, offering SpaceWire and SpaceFibre IP for Microsemi radiation tolerant FPGAs including the RTAX and RTG4 devices.

Further details are provided in Microsemi’s news release on the collaboration.

Information on the services that STAR-Dundee provides for Microsemi devices can be found on our STAR-Dundee Microsemi Partner page.  Also available on this page is a video featuring our CEO, demonstrating our SpaceWire and SpaceFibre IP on the RTG4.

Sentinel-3A

02 March 2016

Iberian Peninsula

ESA’s Sentinel-3A was successfully launched on the 16th of February. On board it has four instruments: Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI), Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR), Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) and Microwave Radiometer (MWR). Amongst other marine and Earth observation applications, these instruments will allow Sentinel-3A to map sea-level change and surface temperature, perform water quality management and monitor vegetation health. 

Three point-to-point SpaceWire links are used between the higher data rate OLCI, SLSTR and SRAL instruments and the Sentinel-3A payload data handling unit (PDHU). 

The image shown features Spain, Portugal and North Africa and is one of the first images taken by the OLCI instrument.  

For more information please see the ESA Sentinel-3 website. 

Image © Copernicus data (2016)

ExoMars Mission 2016

01 March 2016

ExoMars 2016 fairing release image

The start of a new era of Mars exploration for Europe is planned to begin on the 14th of March 2016 with the launch of the ExoMars 2016 mission. The ExoMars 2016 mission consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, and is a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. TGO will study the atmosphere of Mars. Schiaparelli will demonstrate a range of technologies for entry, decent and landing on Mars.

ESA has long used SpaceWire for payload data handling and the Trace Gas Orbitor is another example of this. The second ExoMars mission is planned for launch in 2018, and comprises a rover and a surface science platform. The rover will use SpaceWire extensively to interconnect various instruments, mass memory and processors.

For more information please see the ESA Robotic Exploration of Mars website.

Image © ESA/ATG medialab