Firm:

          

Resilient Computing

          

   

Address:

          

269 Terrance Loop, Bozeman, MT 59718

          

   

Phone:

          

(406) 451-8138                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Name:

          

Chris Major

          

   

E-mail:

          

chris.major@resilient-computing.com

          

   

Address:

          

269 Terrance Loop, MT 59718 - 8920

          

   

Phone:

          

(208) 446-3942                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Name:

          

Brock LaMeres

          

   

E-mail:

          

brock.lameres@resilient-computing.com

          

   

Address:

          

269 Terrance Loop, MT 59718 - 8920

          

   

Phone:

          

(406) 451-8138                                                                                                                                                                                

          

   

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) :                                                                                                                                                          
Begin: 3
End: 4

          

          

     

Technical Abstract (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words):

This project aims to mature an innovative approach to advance the state-of-the-art in high performance space computing through the development of a fault tolerant RISC-V flight computer with coprocessor support.  This project builds on over 14 years of NASA-funded research at Montana State University (MSU) on strategies to provide fault tolerance in space computers through the implementation of a novel self-repairing computer architecture on Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).  The MSU technology, called RadPC, was licensed to Resilient Computing in 2021 to move it closer to commercialization.  Under funding from a 2021 NASA SBIR Phase I award, Resilient Computing conducted customer discovery on the RadPC concept and refined the computer concept to be closer to a viable product through an in-depth feasibility study on how software-implemented fault tolerance (SIFT) could be automated in the RadPC approach.  In this project, we seek to study the feasibility to automating SIFT for a RISC-V computer system implemented on the RadPC fault-tolerant, FPGA-based flight hardware.  We further seek to refine the architecture to support the seamless integration of RISC-V coprocessors that both accelerate computation and are fault-tolerant using the same RadPC strategy implemented on the primary RISC-V computer.  The outcome of this Phase I effort will be a conceptual design for a RISC-V flight computer with coprocessor support that will be prototyped in a subsequence Phase II project.

          

          

     

Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words):

• Replacing ~20 year old rad-hard processors with a lower-cost, higher performance, commercial-based technology.
• Computationally intense algorithms such as real-time science data processing, autonomy, and navigation.
• Control & data handling for NASA small satellites.

          

          

     

Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words):

• Small satellites needing increased reliability and performance, but at a price-point below current rad-hard computers. 
• Earth image processing (climate monitoring, disaster mitigation, agriculture).
• Communication networks.

          

          

     

Duration:     6