Real-Time Hardware Configurable Coprocessors

This project will prototype a coprocessor companion for radiation-hardened computers that can boost system performance by exploiting the parallel resources and reconfigurability of commercial Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). The prototype builds upon a feasibility study that investigated using dynamically reconfigurable coprocessing circuitry integrated into a proven fault-tolerant architecture known as RadPC.nbsp; The RadPC architecture has been matured through NASA-funded flight demonstrations at Montana State University culminating with a lunar mission in 2024.nbsp; RadPC was licensed to Resilient Computing in 2021 to bring it to market as a viable aerospace solution.nbsp; Through prior NASA SBIR funding, RadPC has been adapted and matured into a form that uses the emerging RISC-V CPU, implements fault-recovery procedures abstracted from the developer, and supports inclusion of coprocessors within the fault-tolerant architecture. nbsp;In this project, we will prototype a coprocessor system that can be dynamically configured using the partial reconfiguration (PR) capability of modern FPGAs.nbsp; This approach enables more efficient use of FPGA resources by implementing signal processing algorithms as a sequence of tasks accomplished with different processing blocks that are swapped in and out while holding the interim results in the fast storage registers of the coprocessor.nbsp; By swapping the processing blocks using PR, the hardware resources needed on the FPGA is reduced because not all the steps of the algorithm are implemented simultaneously.nbsp; This leads to faster computation by reducing delays on the FPGA and less power consumption due to using less circuitry at any given time.nbsp; The proposed prototype will perform object detection on incoming camera data using a sequence of coprocessor steps that are dynamically swappable including filtering, edge detection, and pattern recognition.nbsp;The prototype will undergo fault-injection testing and two rounds of radiation testing.