Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Experiment platform to facilitate flight testing of fault tolerant reconfigurable computer systems(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2015) Harkness, Samuel Andrew; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brock LaMeresComputers play an important role in spaceflight and with ever more complex mission goals and sensors, current devices are not sufficient to meet the computational requirements of future missions. These challenges are complicated by memory corruption caused by high energy radiation inherent in the space environment. MSU has developed a novel space computing system based on commercial FPGAs to improve performance and reduce cost. This system employs TMR with spares, memory scrubbing, and partial reconfiguration to achieve a radiation hardened, high performance system. This strategy is leveraged on modern fabrication process nodes largely eliminating long term effects of radiation on silicon devices and shifting the focus strictly on memory corruption errors. This thesis improves on the usability of Montana State University's (MSU) existing CubeSat computing research platform through the addition of a robust data-logging system.Item Implementing the Macgregor point neuron model in a Virtex-II FPGA architecture(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2003) Lukes, Anthony JamesItem Two dimensional radiation sensor development for use in space bound reconfigurable computers(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2011) Gowens, Eric Christopher; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Todd KaiserSpace bound computers are exposed to damaging radiation once they leave the safety of the Earth's atmosphere, which is a significant hindrance to the development of digital space systems. While most digital systems can be radiation hardened, the development time in making them less susceptible to radiation keeps the hardened systems behind the cutting edge. A better solution for this problem is to provide an early warning that a digital microchip may have been struck by radiation in the form of a spatially aware sensor. The focus of this thesis is the design, fabrication, and testing of a two-dimensional silicon-based radiation sensor capable of detecting the location of a potentially damaging radiation strike on a microchip. It is demonstrated that by using a strip sensor design, the spatial detection of incident radiation is possible. Simulations of performance are presented that predict the functionality of the strip sensor. The capabilities of a commercially available sensor are investigated. Additionally, a sensor is designed, fabricated, tested, and compared to the performance of the commercially available sensor. Recommendations for future research of the sensor design are discussed.Item Radiation tolerant many-core computing system for aerospace applications(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2010) Gauer, Clinton Francis; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brock LaMeresWhen integrated circuits are exposed to ionizing radiation, a variety of fault conditions can occur. This draws concern to the aerospace community as they look toward integrating more complex computing systems into flight applications. The detrimental effects that radiation can have on integrated circuits can be broken up into two categories: single event effects and total ionizing dose. Single event effects refer to non-destructive electron hole pairs that are created by the radiation which can lead to logical failures. Total ionizing dose refers to the permanent damage to a device caused by the electron hole pairs getting trapped prior to recombination and results in oxide breakdown and leakage current. In order to provide a robust computing platform for aerospace applications, both of these effects must be addressed. This thesis presents a set of novel fault mitigation strategies to increase the reliability of aerospace flight computers by exploiting the reconfigurability of Field Programmable Gate Arrays. First, redundant circuitry and a voting system are used to recover from non-destructive faults. Secondly, spare circuitry is used to spatially avoid faults and replace permanently damaged circuitry. Finally, partial reconfiguration of the Field Programmable Gate Array is used to repair faults in the configuration memory of the device. These fault mitigation techniques are all combined into a complete system to provide a robust computing platform for aerospace applications.