NMP ST8 Dependable Multiprocessor: Technology Validation Approach and Results

Funded by the NASA New Millennium Program (NMP) Space Technology 8 (ST8) project since 2004, the Dependable Multiprocessor (DM) project is a major step toward NASA’s long-held desire to take advantage of high-performance, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology in onboard processing solutions for space applications. A DM system is a cluster of high-performance COTS processors connected with a high speed interconnect and operating under the control of a radiation-hardened system controller executing platform and technology-independent fault tolerant middleware. This platform and technologyindependent middleware is DM technology and its development represents a significant paradigm shift. For applications that only need to be radiation tolerant, DM technology allows the user to employ ten to one hundred times the processing capability of current radiation-hardened, software-based processing systems. DM technology is softwareimplemented and platform and technology independent, thus enabling space missions to employ current COTS devices as opposed to radiation-hardened technologies that are 2 or 3 generations behind the state-of-the-art. The DM project conducted its TRL6 Technology Validation in 2008 and 2009. This paper provides a brief, high-level overview of DM technology and focuses on the DM technology model validation approach and the summary results. The DM predictive models combine the results from component-level radiation testing, Software Implemented Fault Injection (SWIFI), and system profiling to predict DM system performance in a given space environment. A companion paper AIAA-2010-1495, “NMP ST8 Dependable Multiprocessor: Technology and Technology Validation Overview,” provides an overview of DM technology and a summary of the TRL6 technology validation effort.