Radiation-hardened microprocessor and microcontroller for space applications introduced by Microchip
CHANDLER, Ariz. – Microchip Technology Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., is introducing the SAMRH71 Arm-based microprocessor and SAMRH707 microcontroller with Arm Cortex-M7 system-on-chip (SoC) radiation-hardened technology for space applications.
Microchip developed the SAMRH71 and SAMRH707 devices with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency.
Relying on the standard Arm Cortex-M7 architecture and the same peripherals as automotive and industrial processors, the SAMRH71 and SAMRH707 help optimize development costs and schedule by using standard software and hardware tools.
The SAMRH71, a radiation-hardened variant of Microchip's COTS automotive SoC technology, provides a combination of space connectivity interfaces along with high-performance architecture with more than 200 Dhrystone MIPS (DMIPS).
Related: Radiation-hardened space electronics enter the multi-core era
Designed for high-level radiation performance and extreme temperatures, the SAMRH71 Arm Cortex-M7 microprocessor core is coupled with high-bandwidth communication interfaces such as SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, CAN FD, and Ethernet with IEEE 1588 Generalized Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) capabilities.
The device is ESCC qualified with support from CNES and compliant with MIL standard Class V and Q high-reliability grades.
The SAMRH707 device provides analog functions on top of a more than 100 DMIPS processor unit with digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities, combined with space connectivity interfaces in a small footprint.
Related: The evolving world of radiation-hardened electronics
The SAMRH707 embeds static random access memory (SRAM) and flash memory, high-bandwidth communication interfaces including SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, and CAN FD, along with analog functions such as a 12-bit A/D converter and D/A converter.
Developers can use the SAMRH71F20-EK and SAMRH707F18-EK evaluation boards. The devices include the MPLAB Harmony tools suite, third-party software services for space applications, and the company's integrated development environment (IDE) for developing, debugging, and software libraries. The devices are supported in MPLAB Harmony version 3.0.
For more information contact Microchip Technology online at www.microchip.com.
