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Brief Overview of the January 2004 Demonstration

The January demonstration covers several important deliverables of the Flight Software system; most importantly, functioning crates built around RAD750 processors. Generally speaking, the demo works "inside out", starting from the RAD750 as an isolated system within a crate, then moving outward to show how the crates can operate and communicate in a fully functioning hardware context that includes a simple "spacecraft", power management hardware (a working PDU), and an interface to the LAT (a working GASU):

  • First are the Algorithm/Software Demos, showing several tools from the FSW code base run on an SIU crate.

  • Next are the Programmable Input/Output Demos. These demonstrations show programmable crate communications hardware in operation.

  • Finally, the Storage and Interface Board Demos show hardware with a accessible non-volatile memory and the ability to use the 1553 communications bus.

Goals of the Demonstrations

The demonstration achieves the following goals:

  • Overall, the demo shows that a fully functioning crate, incorporating a RAD750 CPU and SIB, has been successfully built.

  • The demo shows that the crate contains a working Storage and Interface Board (SIB) that communicates with the RAD750 within the crate, and with 1553-compliant devices outside the crate.

  • The demo shows that the crates have operating backplanes and therefore function in a larger hardware context that includes a spacecraft, GASU, and PDU.

  • The Algorithm/Software Demonstration shows that several critical, low-level systems have been fully ported to VxWorks, the RAD750 native environment.

  • The Programmable Input/Output Device Demos show that RAD750-based crates have a functioning backplane of I/O devices and communicate with the spacecraft in customizable ways.

  • The Storage and Interface Board Demos show that the crates have fully functional, readable and writeable non-volatile memory; that through a working backplane, the crates are control the PDU to execute power-up operations; and that they are able to utilize the 1553 communications bus.