Vicor partners with Spacechips to power a breakthrough for in-orbit AI processing
Vicor has partnered with Spacechips, developer of space-electronics solutions for satellites and spacecraft, to design the most power-dense, reliable transponder for in-orbit AI processing.
Spacechips’ AI1 transponder is radiation-tolerant, rugged and compact featuring Vicor’s high density power modules, setting a new standard for power processing, and enabling the next-generation of computing and application design for New Space.
The demand for smaller satellites with sophisticated computational capabilities and reliable and robust onboard processor systems to support the five to 10 year duration of a mission, is pushing the limits of the latest ultra deep submicron FPGAs and ASICs and their power delivery networks. These high-performance processors have demanding, low-voltage, high-current power requirements and their system design is further compounded by the complexities of managing thermal and radiation conditions in space.
In response, Spacechips has introduced its AI1 transponder, a small, on-board processor card containing an ACAP (Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform) AI accelerator. The smart, re-configurable receiver and transmitter delivers up to 133 tera operations per second (TOPS) of performance that enables new Earth-observation, in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and telecommunication applications to support real-time, autonomous computing while ensuring the reliability and longevity to complete longer missions.
Today’s low-Earth-orbit observation spacecraft can establish direct line of sight over a specific region only about once every 10 minutes. If satellites were trained to fill those blind spots using AI algorithms, emergency management teams could make faster, better-informed decisions when direct line-of-sight communication with Earth is not possible. Spacechips is harnessing these powerful artificial intelligence compute engines to enable in-orbit AI to address a variety of Earth-bound and space-related problems:
• Tracking space debris to avoid costly collisions
• Monitoring mission critical spacecraft system health
• Identifying severe weather patterns
• Reporting critical crop production rainfall data
FPA is a power delivery system design that separates the functions of DC-DC conversion into independent modules. In Vicor’s radiation tolerant modules, the bus converter module (BCM) provides the isolation and step down to 28V, while the pre-regulator module (PRM) provides regulation to a voltage transformation module (VTM) or current multiplier that performs the 28V DC transformation to 0.8V.
The value of the Vicor solution, according to Bedi, is that it is very small and power dense. This allows for better efficiency and flexibility by reducing size and weight and yields higher power density, especially in high-performance computing applications.
By adopting Vicor’s FPA power delivery system, Bedi is helping telecommunications and SIGINT operators perform real-time, on-board processing by autonomously changing RF frequency plans, channelisation, modulation and communication standards based on live traffic needs. Vicor power converter modules also feature a dual powertrain, which for fault-intolerant space applications provides built-in redundancy that allows loads to be driven at 100 percent on each side of the powertrain.
