(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005-04) Jordaan, Jacques; Berner, H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of commercial-off-the-shelf components in low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems
has become a very popular design trend. Not only are many of these components
sufficiently radiation tolerant, but are also less expensive than their space qualified counterparts.
Commercial processors are already used in the on-board computer (OBC) of
satellites like SUNSAT 2004, CanX and SNAP-I. With the increasing demand for smaller,
less expensive satellites and a shorter time-to-market window, the feasibility of implementing
a satellite's OBC as a system-on-a-chip (SoC) is now considered.
This thesis describes a single-chip implementation, excluding memory, of a LEO microsatellite's
OBC on the commercial grade Altera Excalibur embedded processor. A
typical satellite OBC system was developed on the Excalibur device to test the functionality
and performance of the device as a single-chip OBC.