Q-Deploy-Processor and FPGA Rapid-Deployment Platform

For NASA and other organizations, development using reconfigurable technologies can be time consuming and difficult, with expensive to over-budget development cycles and longer time-to-deployment. The proposed Q-DeployÂ? Processor and FPGA Rapid-Deployment Platform, with the endorsement of a leading prime who is heavily involved with NASA programs and allocations, will give NASA a standardized and commercially available system providing an environment and infrastructure for accelerated development and rapid deployment of highly reliable applications on reconfigurable computing platforms. The Q-Deploy system will leverage and extend proven reconfigurable software technologies developed under DOD contracts and promotes the development of reusable and easily testable functions, with an expanding library oftested features that address normal system-level functions and requirements. The existing technologies will be expanded for operation in Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) soft-core processors within FPGA(s) to provide added reliability for applications in environments such as those of interest to NASA. This expansion enhances reliability, and when combined with other capabilities, enables the possibility of, for example, "replacing" a faulty processor in an operational system. Reliability will be further enhanced by providing the Hardware Object Refresh Manager to refresh objects in a managedand prioritized manner to combat module failures due to, for example, radiation induced bit swaps without the requirement of device reset or downtime. Q-Deploy's innovative approach for reliable, rapid development and deployment of reconfigurable technologies will provide a flexible, modifiable, andextendable platform usable by multiple developers for NASA and other organizations.