I like how the logo on the package is the M from *Monsters, Inc."
Something else they make there, I suppose?
The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
11–20 of 86 posts
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#12Here's a link to the product page, http://www.maxwell.com/products/microelectronics/product.asp... . Maxwell makes an entire array of microelectronics components. These are generally meant for use in devices that are deployed into space environments.
"FOR SPACE" Holy shit. So this is to protect your orbital weapons platform from EMP blasts?
ICMBs go through space you know.
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or anything you feel like putting in space, that you worry might be near a nuclear explosion or other source of intense ionizing radiation at some point. Be prepared, as the boy scouts say. I assume that maxim goes double in space, considering how expensive it is to put things up there in the first place.
No kidding. I believe NASA had something like 3 dual-redundant flight computers on the Voyager probes.
Just think how much redundancy you could get, cheaply, with the advances that have been made with Moore's Law over the years. Computers for space probes don't need to be that fancy. It's totally feasible to build processors that use error-correcting codes in their entire datapaths, have tri-modular redundancy for all their functional units, and then are arranged alongside several other identical processors for ridiculous amounts of redundancy.
This sounds silly, but the vast majority of the cost is non-recurring engineering cost. Manufacturing it would be a relatively cheap matter of sending the design to a fab like TSMC along with a bundle of money. Transistors are dirt cheap.
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#14Here's a link to the product page, http://www.maxwell.com/products/microelectronics/product.asp... . Maxwell makes an entire array of microelectronics components. These are generally meant for use in devices that are deployed into space environments.
There's some interesting material on the Honeywell HX5000 process (Silicon on Insulator - usually synthetic sapphire) for radiation hardening.
There's an interesting (if somewhat technical) document here: http://www51.honeywell.com/aero/common/documents/myaerospace...
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
No kidding. I believe NASA had something like 3 dual-redundant flight computers on the Voyager probes.
Just think how much redundancy you could get, cheaply, with the advances that have been made with Moore's Law over the years. Computers for space probes don't need to be that fancy. It's totally feasible to build processors that use error-correcting codes in their entire datapaths, have tri-modular redundancy for all their functional units, and then are arranged alongside several other identical processors for ridicu…
Doesn't the difficulty/expense of keeping all those processors running in absolute cycle-for-cycle lockstep increase dramatically with the amount of redundancy?
I vaguely remember being taught that this is the big problem developing real-time safety critical systems.
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#16while(ned_pin) {}; party_like_its_1999();
Remember to declare ned_pin volatile. (Sorry to be pedantic, but I was getting physically uncomfortable about the possibility that it might not have been declared volatile.)
You're physically uncomfortable about indefinite 1999-esque partying? Do you have something better to do when !ned_pin?
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#17So, my mom is a former Maxwell employee who now does her own defense contracting, and makes this same type of part. As I understand it, when there is a nuclear event, it generates x-rays followed by the EMP. The goal is to have warheads in flight to be able to continue to their target, so the strategy is to employ an NED. When an event is detected, the warhead shuts down its electronics for the duration of the EMP, a…
I thought EMP affected electronics regardless of whether they are powered at the time of the burst or not?
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#18So, my mom is a former Maxwell employee who now does her own defense contracting, and makes this same type of part. As I understand it, when there is a nuclear event, it generates x-rays followed by the EMP. The goal is to have warheads in flight to be able to continue to their target, so the strategy is to employ an NED. When an event is detected, the warhead shuts down its electronics for the duration of the EMP, a…
That ASIC idea is pretty neat - it kind of sounds like taking the problem of single event upset and turning it into a solution, pretty clever.
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just think how much redundancy you could get, cheaply, with the advances that have been made with Moore's Law over the years. Computers for space probes don't need to be that fancy. It's totally feasible to build processors that use error-correcting codes in their entire datapaths, have tri-modular redundancy for all their functional units, and then are arranged alongside several other identical processors for ridicu…
Doesn't the difficulty/expense of keeping all those processors running in absolute cycle-for-cycle lockstep increase dramatically with the amount of redundancy? I vaguely remember being taught that this is the big problem developing real-time safety critical systems.
If you make a bunch of (highly redundant) small processors, then I don't see why it would be much harder than the clock distribution issues in large processors, which also need to keep all their parts in sync.
Alternately, it's possible to use asynchronous processor design and not worry about clock distribution. The tools aren't really there, but there have been async processors made before, and they work. They handle synchronization with local handshaking, instead of distributing a clock signal everywhere.
Another option is to abandon the cycle-for-cycle lockstep requirements, and just ensure that the synchronization time is bounded, and reasonably low. I know there have been some papers published about using this kind of globally-asynchronous-locally-synchronous architecture for realtime apps.
Re: The ¬NED pin goes low on detection of a nuclear detonation [pdf]
#20So, my mom is a former Maxwell employee who now does her own defense contracting, and makes this same type of part. As I understand it, when there is a nuclear event, it generates x-rays followed by the EMP. The goal is to have warheads in flight to be able to continue to their target, so the strategy is to employ an NED. When an event is detected, the warhead shuts down its electronics for the duration of the EMP, a…
I thought EMP affected electronics regardless of whether they are powered at the time of the burst or not?
You can harden your circuits against EMP, it's just expensive and almost universally unnecessary. Almost.