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A Framework for Evaluating and Optimizing FPGA-Based SoCs for Aerospace Computing

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Published:24 September 2016Publication History
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Abstract

On-board processing systems are often deployed in harsh aerospace environments and must therefore adhere to stringent constraints such as low power, small size, and high dependability in the presence of faults. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are often an attractive option for designers seeking low-power, high-performance devices. However, unlike nonreconfigurable devices, radiation effects can alter an FPGA’s functionality instead of just the device’s data, requiring designers to consider fault-tolerant strategies to mitigate these effects. In this article, we present a framework to ease these system design challenges and aid designers in considering a broad range of devices and fault-tolerant strategies for on-board processing, highlighting the most promising options and tradeoffs early in the design process. This article focuses on the power, dependability, and lifetime evaluation metrics, which our framework calculates and leverages to evaluate the effectiveness of varying system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Finally, we use our framework to evaluate SoC designs for a case study on a hyperspectral-imaging (HSI) mission to demonstrate our framework’s ability to identify efficient and effective SoC designs.

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        • Published in

          cover image ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems
          ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems  Volume 10, Issue 1
          March 2017
          206 pages
          ISSN:1936-7406
          EISSN:1936-7414
          DOI:10.1145/3002131
          • Editor:
          • Steve Wilton
          Issue’s Table of Contents

          Copyright © 2016 ACM

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 24 September 2016
          • Accepted: 1 January 2016
          • Revised: 1 December 2015
          • Received: 1 March 2015
          Published in trets Volume 10, Issue 1

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