Design, Development and Validation
of Fault-Tolerant Processor
and Integrated Development
Environment for Space and Defence
Applications: Indigenous Initiative
P. Balasubramanian, B. Kusuma Kumari, S. Kalyan Kumar, Anil N. Terkar,
Chnab Sankar, Sudhanshu Kumar, Vikram Singh Parihar,J. V. R. Sagar
and C. Ramesh Reddy
Abstract Space and defence electronics system demands higher reliability for its
operation in harsh (Maurer et al. in John Hopkins APL Tech Dig 28, 2008 [1])
and tough application environments. Development of processor (Azambuja et al.
in IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 59, 2012 [2]) based electronics systems has advantages
over sequencer logics, viz. high operating frequency, handle complex algorithm for
autonomous operations, supports multiinput and multioutput systems, low form fac-
tor, ultra-low-power consumption and increased reliability. The operation of pro-
cessor under various environmental conditions and its uninterrupted operations pave
way to achieve successful missions. Most of the on-board computers for the space and
defence systems are subjected to harsh environments due to cosmic radiations(aerial),
high temperature, vibrations, sand and dust. Modular redundancy concepts aid to
improve reliability however at the cost of increased form factor and enhanced power
requirements. Researchers across the globe evolved with various methods and tech-
niques to increase the ruggedness of the electronics systems. Traditional design hard-
ening techniques viz. modular redundancies, parity algorithms, cyclic redundancy
checks, single error correction and double error detection are in use to develop the
fault-tolerant on-board computers. Since most of the fault-tolerant processors devel-
oped using in-house design, process hardening techniques for specific purpose, the
availability of the same for the strategic programs and critical applications is limited
P. Balasubramanian
DRDO Research and Innovation Centre (RIC), IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai 600113, India
e-mail: pbalasubramanian@ric.drdo.in
B. Kusuma Kumari · S. Kalyan Kumar · A. N. Terkar (B ) · C. Sankar · S. Kumar · V. S. Parihar ·
J. V. R. Sagar
ANURAG, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: a_terkar@anurag.drdo.in
B. Kusuma Kumari
e-mail: kusuma@anurag.drdo.in
C. Ramesh Reddy
RCI, Hyderabad, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
PSR. S. Sastry et al. (eds.), Advances in Small Satellite Technologies,
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1724-2_40
413