Designed to replace existing systems still using a processor design from 1997, the RISC-V-powered chip will offer 100 times the performance.
NASA has confirmed a partnership with Microchip and SiFive to create a space-centric processor built around the free and open source RISC-V architecture: the High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) chip.
"This cutting-edge spaceflight processor will have a tremendous impact on our future space missions and even technologies here on Earth," claims Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation at NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. "This effort will amplify existing spacecraft capabilities and enable new ones and could ultimately be used by virtually every future space mission, all benefiting from more capable flight computing."