Protocal Converter

The Protocol Converter (PC) autonomously converts data from one standard or protocol to another. It is intended to allow a variety of payloads and devices that have incompatible interfaces to connect to the standard satellite bus interfaces. It may be sold as a commercial product for other satellites, for UAV's or for industrial applications. Currently, if a payload was incompatible, the C&DH must be customized and re-qualified. The PC is a pre-qualified stand-alone hardware/firmware design, rapidly configurable to accommodate payloads. The PC is reconfigured through a programming port without replacing hardware, eliminating the need to repeat qualification. Tremendous savings in time and money can thus be realized. Generally, the PC uses two printed circuit boards, each designed for a particular protocol with a PCI interface between the boards. Phase I will develop an architecture to support the general PC as well as the particular application of a binary-to-ternary converter. Phase II will build a prototype binary-to-ternary converter, which has immediate cost-saving application to allow use of any generic low-cost command receiver to connect to a decryptor device. The binary-to-ternary converter is unique because it fits on a single PCB, rather than a pair of boards (the normal architecture).