IBM RAD6000
 |
Technology node 0.5 μm | | |
| Instruction set | POWER1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Physical specifications | ||
| Cores |
| |
| History | ||
| Successor(s) | RAD750 | |
| POWER, PowerPC, and Power ISA architectures |
|---|
| NXP (formerly Freescale and Motorola) |
| IBM |
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| IBM/Nintendo |
| Other |
| Related links |
| Cancelled in gray, historic in italic |
The RAD6000
BAE Systems Electronic Systems. RAD6000 is mainly known as the onboard computer of numerous NASA spacecraft
.
History
The radiation-hardening of the original RSC 1.1 million-transistor processor to make the RAD6000's CPU was done by IBM Federal Systems Division working with the Air Force Research Laboratory.[citation needed]
As of June 2008[update], there are 200 RAD6000 processors in space on a variety of NASA, United States Department of Defense and commercial spacecraft, including:
- Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity)
- Deep Space 1 probe
- Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter
- Mars Odysseyorbiter
- Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility
- MESSENGER probe to Mercury
- STEREO Spacecraft
- IMAGE/Explorer 78 MIDEX spacecraft
- Genesis and Stardust sample return missions
- Phoenix Mars Polar Lander
- Dawn Mission to the asteroid belt using ion propulsion
- Solar Dynamics Observatory, Launched Feb 11, 2010 (flying both RAD6000 and RAD750)[1][failed verification]
- Burst Alert Telescope Image Processor on board the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
- DSCOVR Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft
The computer has a maximum clock rate of 33
real-time operating system running on NASA's RAD6000 installations is VxWorks
. The Flight boards in the above systems have switchable clock rates of 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz.
Reported to have a unit cost somewhere between US$200,000 and US$300,000, RAD6000 computers were released for sale in the general commercial market in 1996.
The RAD6000's successor is the RAD750 processor, based on IBM's PowerPC 750.
See also
- IBM RS/6000
- PowerPC 601, a consumer chip with similar computing capabilities to the RAD6000
References
- ^ Latest BAE Press Releases
- ^ a b "RAD6000 Space Computers" (PDF). BAE Systems. 2008-06-23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-04. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
External links
- Software on Mars rovers 'space qualified' – By Matthew Fordahl/AP, 23 January 2004
- AFRL Rad6000 fact sheet
- Software Behind the Mars Phoenix Lander (Audio Interview)
- The CPUs of Spacecraft Computers in Space