RUSH

Space presents a challenging environment for computing. Extended development times and radiation tolerance requirements leave hardware performance a decade or more behind the terrestrial state-of-the-art at the time of deployment. Additionally, once deployed, hardware changes are impractical, encouraging a trend towards increased software programmability. At the same time, topside pressure from application advancements is forcing space-based platforms to improve throughput and latency while reducing power consumption. A popular approach to addressing the tension between these requirements is the heterogeneous processing architecture. By providing multiple hardware tools that optimally support a subset of the anticipated workload, a heterogeneous architecture can offer performance and power solutions to the application developer. However, programming these systems is extremely challenging due to variations in toolsets and data sharing interfaces. As a result, data sharing and dynamic workload scheduling across heterogeneous architectures are often suboptimal and hindered by poor scalability. In this research and development effort, we study the feasibility of unifying a heterogeneous processing platform a unique programming model This platform is called the Assimilation Dynamic Network (ADN). The ADN employs a mesh network and virtual tiles on FPGAs and scalable multicore processors to create a cleaner and innovative programming model.

Some NASA applications for the ADN include: software defined radio, video processing, video distribution, autonomous landing, hazard avoidance, image processing, data compression, and general processing and system control.

Some non-NASA applications include: software defined radio, hyperspectral data analysis, surveillance and reconnaissance processing, search and rescue, medical imaging, target tracking, software defined radar, video processing, video distribution, and general embedded manycore processing.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.