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FPGA soft cores for space applications. You can't (or at least couldn't at the time) license ARM cores for FPGA deployments outside of R&D because ARM is psych
by edrxty 3y ago
FPGA soft cores for space applications. You can't (or at least couldn't at the time) license ARM cores for FPGA deployments outside of R&D because ARM is psychotic.
- gchadwick 3y agoWe've had people consider Ibex for space applications, well verified and has a dual-core lockstep option: https://github.com/lowRISC/ibex https://github.com/lowRISC/ibex. An ETH Zurich team have done a triple core lockstep version for cubesats: https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/05/riscv_microcontroller_space/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/05/riscv_microcontroller...
- edrxty 3y agohttps://www.gaisler.com/index.php/information/servicessupport/asicfpga-design https://www.gaisler.com/index.php/information/servicessuppor... Gaisler is also current one of the biggest players there IIRC. I've used them for stuff in the past.
- Zetobal 3y ago[flagged]
- kwhitefoot 3y ago> nothing else left to say but wishing you to have a psychotic episode yourself. That remark sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. Two wrongs don't make a right you know.
- Zetobal 3y ago[flagged]
- londons_explore 3y ago>can't license ARM cores for FPGA deployments I believe this is because ARM wasn't confident they'd be able to enforce licensing effectively. For non-FPGA designs, they only need to have insider knowledge from a handful of fab companies to detect those using cores without valid licenses.
- lizknope 3y agoARM has a team involved in accounting and finding "catch up revenue." This are royalty payments that were supposed to be paid but the customer "accidentally forgot" to pay but thanks to ARM's "helpful accountants" they get the money sent over. How exactly ARM does this isn't always clear. For hard IP there is a GDS layer called IP tags and the foundry is supposed to scan this layer and can report numbers back to IP providers like ARM, Cadence, Synopsys, etc. If the customer removed this layer "accidentally" then the foundry can still scan for certain patterns and structures within the GDS mask data. Like a unique hidden watermark and report back to the IP vendor. For soft IP that is synthesized there are probably other ways to do it but I'm not that up to date.
- rcxdude 3y agoAFAIK you can get cortex M1 and M3 softcores in the last few years at least. I don't know about anything bigger though.
- adrian_b 3y agoWhich are very old, completely obsolete cores.
- naasking 3y agoSpace applications tend to use older cores and processes anyway because they're more resistant to radiation.
- edrxty 3y agoLess inherent robustness, more just general tendency towards "solving tomorrow's problems with yesterday's technology" There are companies that take commercial parts and nuke them under a beam at places like TAMU to profile their performance then resell to aerospace. The issue is by the time this flight qualification happens the parts are old as hell.
- naasking 3y agoBut there's still a good reason older hardware is preferred. The wider traces on older hardware means less susceptibility to random bit flips due to the higher background radiation. The extremely narrow traces of modern processes are already vulnerable to quantum effects on Earth where radiation is significantly attenuated.
- nickelpro 3y agoWe're talking about softcores here, not fabrication processes, flashing an FPGA with an older softcore design doesn't somehow make it more resistant to interstellar radiation
- 3y ago
- kramerger 3y agoIsn't LEON3 the go to core for these sort of applications?
- razer6 3y agoThere is a successor called Noel-V: https://www.gaisler.com/index.php/products/processors/noel-v https://www.gaisler.com/index.php/products/processors/noel-v