A Framework for Evaluating and Optimizing FPGA-Based SoCs for Aerospace Computing

Abstract

On-board processing systems are often deployed in harsh aerospace environments and must therefore adhere to stringent constraints such as low power, small size, and high dependability in the presence of faults. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are often an attractive option for designers seeking low-power, high-performance devices. However, unlike nonreconfigurable devices, radiation effects can alter an FPGA’s functionality instead of just the device’s data, requiring designers to consider fault-tolerant strategies to mitigate these effects. In this article, we present a framework to ease these system design challenges and aid designers in considering a broad range of devices and fault-tolerant strategies for on-board processing, highlighting the most promising options and tradeoffs early in the design process. This article focuses on the power, dependability, and lifetime evaluation metrics, which our framework calculates and leverages to evaluate the effectiveness of varying system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Finally, we use our framework to evaluate SoC designs for a case study on a hyperspectral-imaging (HSI) mission to demonstrate our framework’s ability to identify efficient and effective SoC designs.