Embedded and Onboard Parallel Processing Systems

Spiral Technology has expertise with parallel processing in embedded and onboard computing applications. Transputer technology is ideally suited to flight applications because it offers high processing capability in a small-space, parallel processing in higher-order languages, very high throughput per dollar, natural expandability and software reconfiguration in a flexible distributed architecture, flexible interfaces with aircraft communications busses, and easy tailoring to a wide variety of applications.

The transputer is a single chip, 32-bit computer architecture consisting of a high performance processor, floating point accelerator, 4K bytes of on-chip memory, I/O interface, and four point-to-point communications links. The links are used to interconnect other transputers into expandable array networks capable of concurrent and cooperative high-capacity sequential and/or parallel processing. Fault-tolerant reconfiguration and redundancy features important to high reliability flight test applications are inherently available in the local memory and homogeneous processor configurations. Spiral Technology has designed, procured, assembled, developed, tested, and demonstrated advanced transputer hardware and software systems, including a transputer-based Strategic Defense System Scenario Driver and Battle Management Processing Test Facility and an Iterative Finite Element Structural Analysis System based on transputer network to achieve major processing capacity increases and execution time acceleration.

Spiral Technology developed for the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center a transputer-based flight research computer, the Airborne Research Transputer System (ARTS), which can be used for a variety of processing applications onboard an F-18 Hornet. The ARTS allows significant digital computation onboard a flight research platform at low cost. This innovation leverages considerable work by Spiral, NASA DFRC, and Spiral Technology with the NASA Lewis Research Center sponsorship in transputer applications, aircraft automation, and flight test management system development. Related applications to remote space flight control and remote robotic task management/control further broaden the potential benefits for this work for NASA, military, and industrial use.

The ARTS provides a method of significantly improving onboard processing of flight research related data and algorithms. In addition, the innovative transputer network technology and auxiliary onboard processing techniques under development for onboard flight research computer applications can also benefit related high risk task areas which require higher processing or control band widths than can be achieved by remote semi-autonomous or tele-operated operation. These applications include space flight test management and control as well as computationally intense autonomous military/industrial robotic platform guidance and control in hostile environments.