Single Event Upset Characterisation of NOEL-V soft processor

Draft version

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

T.J.B. Hendrix Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

A. Menicucci Space Systems Egineering (mentor)
S. Di Mascio Space Systems Egineering (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2022 Tom Hendrix
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Published Date

12-01-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the susceptibility to high energy proton irradiation of the NOEL-V soft processor (SP), a promising and highly modular soft processor by Cobham Gaisler. In order to characterise the performance of the NOEL-V SP in the harsh space radiation environment, the KCU105 development board is used as Device Under Test (DUT).

User logic upsets and configuration SRAM upsets are extracted and compared for multiple configurations of the processor. Although the higher performance configurations utilise more resources of the FPGA, this has not necessarily proven to also cause a higher susceptibility. The biggest influence on user logic upsets is observed to be the use of an operating system. Marginal decrease in susceptibility is found when employing the floating point unit of the processor, also an influence of the L2Cache is shown.
Findings indicate that the NOEL-V processor, with the implementation of targeted fault tolerant measures, can be a viable choice for space missions. Due to its modularity, the processor can be used for a multitude of mission types ranging from high performance general purpose to low end microcontroller applications.

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- Embargo expired in 28-02-2022